First underground radar images from Mars Perseverance rover reveal some surprises

First underground radar images from Mars Perseverance rover reveal some surprises

Key takeaways: Roving the Red Planet. Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021 and has been gathering data on the planet’s geology and climate and searching for signs of ancient life.​​​​​​ What lies beneath. The rover’s subsurface radar experiment, co-led by UCLA’s David Paige, has returned images showing unexpected variations in rock layers beneath the Jezero crater. Probing […]

NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere

NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. This observation of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet. The finding, accepted for publication in […]

‘Seeing’ the other side of our galaxy

‘Seeing’ the other side of our galaxy

Astronomers have successfully traced a spiral arm on the far side of our Galaxy, an accomplishment that provides new insights into the structure of the Milky Way. Efforts to observe the far side of our Galaxy have been hampered by the vast distance and interstellar dust that blocks optical light from those regions. Here, Alberto […]

Supervolcanoes: A key to America’s electric future?

Supervolcanoes: A key to America’s electric future?

Most of the lithium used to make the lithium-ion batteries that power modern electronics comes from Australia and Chile. But Stanford scientists say there are large deposits in sources right here in America: supervolcanoes. In a study published today in Nature Communications, scientists detail a new method for locating lithium in supervolcanic lake deposits. The […]