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Category: space

Next-Latent Prediction Transformers Learn Compact World Models

View recent discussion. Abstract: Transformers replace recurrence with a memory that grows with sequence length and self-attention that enables ad-hoc lookups over past tokens. Consequently, they lack an inherent incentive to compress history into compact latent states with consistent transition rules. This often leads to learning solutions that generalize poorly. We introduce Next-Latent Prediction (NextLat), which extends standard next-token training with self-supervised predictions in the latent space. Specifically, NextLat trains a transformer to learn latent representations that are predictive of its next latent state given the next token. Theoretically, we show that these latents provably converge towards belief states, compressed information about the history necessary to predict the future.

Einstein Probe detects mysterious X-ray transient that doesn’t fit any known class

Astronomers have reported the discovery of an unusual X-ray transient detected by the Einstein Probe that does not fit any known class of cosmic explosions. The paper presenting its multiwavelength analysis was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on June 13.

On March 5, 2024, a space telescope called the Einstein Probe—designed to scan the sky for sudden X-ray flashes—caught a brief, never-before-seen source called EP240305a. It produced two brief X-ray flares, one right after the other, separated by about 200 seconds of quiet.

Researchers quickly pointed several telescopes at this source to gather more data in X-rays, infrared, optical and radio wavelengths; the analysis of these multiwavelength data is presented in the new study.

Homing pigeon navigation relies on superparamagnetic macrophages under overcast conditions

Birds use a variety of navigational strategies, including the geomagnetic field, especially when other cues are not available, such as under overcast or nocturnal conditions. Magnetite particles in the beak, cryptochromes in the eye, cellular ion-channel alterations, and changes in the vestibular system have been proposed to explain magnetoreception, but the exact mechanisms remain debated. Here, we used physical, morphological, functional, and genomic assays to identify the presence of superparamagnetic macrophages in the liver. We found that after macrophage depletion, pigeons flying under overcast conditions lacked their usual orientation capabilities. Orientation was unimpaired in birds without macrophages when the sun was visible, suggesting that this was their primary cue.

NASA to Cover US Spacewalk 95, Host Preview News Conference

NASA astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, June 30, to replace a wrist joint on the orbital complex’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 8:35 a.m. EDT.

Experts from NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) will preview the upcoming spacewalk during a news conference at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 25, on the agency’s YouTube channel. The briefing will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Participants include:

No spacecraft has ever landed in the outer solar system — except one: the Huygens probe

Two decades on, it is still the most distant landing ever made, and it remains the only one in the outer solar system.

Seven years to get there

Huygens was the lander half of the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint venture between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian space agency. The European-built probe rode piggyback on NASA’s Cassini orbiter, which launched in 1997 and spent nearly seven years crossing the solar system before slipping into orbit around Saturn in 2004.

NASA selects mission to study space weather interaction with Earth’s atmosphere

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected for development a space science mission that will study how space weather interacts with Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA announced June 18 that the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer, or DAPHNE, mission will proceed into the next phase of development, with a launch planned for no earlier than 2029.

DAPHNE was one of three concepts selected by NASA for study in 2024 for a mission concept called Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling, or DYNAMIC, that was recommended by the heliophysics decadal survey in 2013 to examine the coupling between regions of the atmosphere and space weather.

Shocked Soil Discovered: Rare On Earth, But Abundant On Mars?

When a meteoroid strikes, it generates a wave of energy that moves faster than the speed of sound. When all that energy propagates through material in seconds or less before being quickly cooled and resolidified by a secondary wave, it produces glass.

Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Shawn Wright was looking for such glassy material while doing field work among the basaltic volcanic rock of Lonar crater in the Deccan region of India, when he found something unexpected.

“Some glassy samples were fluffy and light, like popcorn,” he said. “It had a really low density, it was airy, and it crumbled in my fingers. It looked different than all the other samples I’d seen and collected, so I aimed to find out what it was by trying to figure out what it used to be.”

Hidden electric space waves are quietly cleaning Earth’s ‘killer’ electrons

High above our heads, a silent battle is unfolding within Earth’s magnetic shield. For decades, scientists have tracked “killer electrons”—ultrafast particles capable of piercing satellite armor and endangering astronauts as they zip through the Van Allen radiation belts. While we knew these dangerous particles eventually leak out of the belts and into the atmosphere, the primary mechanism “cleaning” the highest-energy electrons has remained a persistent mystery of space weather.

Now, a study published in Geophysical Research Letters has uncovered the culprit by diving into three years of NASA’s Van Allen Probes data. Led by Lixian Yang and a team of researchers, the study identifies a hidden population of chorus waves that defies standard physics models.

Unlike typical space waves that are mostly magnetic, these highly oblique quasi-electrostatic (HOQE) waves possess an electric field so powerful it dominates their character. This unique electric punch allows them to knock electrons with energies up to 2 MeV out of orbit and into the atmosphere, scattering them with a force far more potent than any previous model predicted.

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