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NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere. The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) to 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface was not predicted. Although the source and composition of the dust are unknown, there is no hazard to MAVEN and other spacecraft orbiting Mars....

The map here was generated using data from Copernicus Sentinel-3’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer. While weather forecasts use predicted air temperatures, this satellite instrument measures the real amount of energy radiating from Earth – and dipicts the real temperature of the land surface. The Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites also carry camera-like instruments, which captured smoke billowing from the fires in Turkey on July 30.

Traditionally, the performance of microfluidic cell separation and sorting is evaluated either by analyzing the input and collected output samples requiring extra multiple steps of off-chip analysis or the use of expensive equipment (e.g., flow cytometry), or by detecting the lateral positions of cells using an expensive high-speed imaging setup with intricate image processing algorithms or laborious manual analysis. Hence, there is a great need to develop a simple approach for the lateral position measurement of flowing particles....

Drexel University researchers’ program designs materials with human-like microvasculature. The complex network of veins that keeps us cool during the heat of summer has inspired engineers to create novel thermal management systems. But replicating the circulatory system, in form or function, has been no easy task. Recently, a team of researchers from Drexel University and North Carolina State University have created a computational platform that could be the key to mimicking the body’s evolutionary optimized cooling system....

More than 95 percent of Earth’s oceans have never been observed, according to estimates by scientists, which means we have seen less of our planet’s ocean than we have the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars. One steep challenge preventing widespread undersea exploration is the high cost of powering an underwater camera for a long time. Doing so now requires tethering it to a research vessel or frequently sending a ship to recharge its batteries....

Scientists have found a clue to the molecular cause of Alzheimer’s—a clue that may also explain why women are at greater risk for the disease. In the study, the researchers from Scripps Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that a particularly harmful, chemically modified form of an inflammatory immune protein called complement C3 was present at much higher levels in the brains of women who had died with the disease, compared to men who had died with the disease....

By March 2022, COVID-19 had caused over 450 million confirmed infections and six million reported deaths. The first vaccines approved in the US and Europe that protect against serious infection are Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which deliver genetic code, known as mRNA, to the bodies’ cells, whereas Oxford/AstraZeneca and J&J/Janssen are viral vector vaccines that use a modified version of a different virus — a vector — to deliver instructions to our cells....

“The whole platform is very, very flexible,” says Norbert Pardi, a research assistant professor of infectious diseases in the Perelman School of Medicine. “You can use mRNA vaccines for many things.” That includes cancer—which is just one of several areas outside of infectious diseases that researchers at Penn have been investigating. Here’s a breakdown of how an mRNA-based vaccine could work to fight tumors, the challenges that need to be overcome, the technology’s roots in oncology, and where it’s headed....

Astronomers have discovered a record-breaking bubble of ionized gas. Measuring more than 300,000 light-years across, three times the diameter of the Milky Way, this colorful bubble of ionized gas is the biggest to ever have been discovered. The enormous bubble contains 10 individual galaxies and is situated in a particularly dense region of a galaxy group called COSMOS-Gr30, 6.5 billion light-years away from Earth. Targeted due to its high density of galaxies, this group is extremely varied — some galaxies are actively forming stars while others are passive; some are bright while others are dim; some are massive and others are tiny....

The study, led by Iain McDonald of the University of Manchester, UK, (now based at the Open University, UK) used data obtained in 2016 during the K2 mission phase of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. During this two-month campaign, Kepler monitored a crowded field of millions of stars near the center of our Galaxy every 30 minutes in order to find rare gravitational microlensing events. The study team found 27 short-duration candidate microlensing signals that varied over timescales of between an hour and 10 days....

“We’ve outlined an easy, deterministic and readily deployable way to stack and stitch these individual layers into orders not seen in nature,” said Jeffrey Cain, an author on the paper who was formerly at Northwestern University but is now at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California. Cain explained that for nanoscientists, “the dream” is to combine 2-D materials in any order and collate a library of these heterostructures with their documented properties....

The most important thing to remember about NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission, which ended December 31, 2021, may be its name: OMG proved that ocean water is melting Greenland’s glaciers at least as much as warm air is melting them from above. Because ice loss from Greenland’s ice sheet currently contributes more to the global rise of the oceans than any other single source, this finding has revolutionized scientists’ understanding of the pace of sea level rise in the coming decades....

The Demo-2 mission is slated to lift off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A at 4:33 EDT (1:33 PDT) today (May 27, 2020). As joint operations commander of the mission, Robert Behnken is responsible for activities such as rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as Demo-2 activities while the spacecraft is docked to the space station. A colonel in the United States Air Force, he flew on two space shuttle missions and logged more than 708 hours in space — more than 37 hours during six spacewalks....

Scientists using satellite images and data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge have found evidence of a drained and refilled subglacial lake beneath northeastern Greenland’s Flade Ice Cap. This sub-ice body of water is only one of a handful that have been detected in Greenland and its presence sheds new light on how the Greenland Ice Sheet reacts to warming temperatures. Subglacial lakes are relatively common in Antarctica, and although recent studies have mathematically predicted possible locations for hundreds of such features in Greenland, few have actually been found....

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data have given scientists the clearest evidence yet of carbon-dioxide snowfalls on Mars. This reveals the only known example of carbon-dioxide snow falling anywhere in our solar system. Frozen carbon dioxide, better known as “dry ice,” requires temperatures of about minus 193 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 125 Celsius), which is much colder than needed for freezing water. Carbon-dioxide snow reminds scientists that although some parts of Mars may look quite Earth-like, the Red Planet is very different....

Organic molecules are the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life and consist of a wide variety of compounds made of carbon combined with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other atoms. However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that don’t involve life, supporting the hypothesis that chemical reactions in asteroids can make some of life’s ingredients. NASA scientist Heather Graham receives a shipment of asteroid Ryugu samples from her colleagues at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)....

Cube-shaped snow, icy landscapes, and frost are all part of the Red Planet’s coldest season. When winter comes to Mars, the surface is transformed into a truly otherworldly holiday scene. Snow, ice, and frost accompany the season’s sub-zero temperatures. Some of the coldest of these occur at the planet’s poles, where it gets as low as minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 123 degrees Celsius). Cold as it is, don’t expect snow drifts worthy of the Rocky Mountains....

Ingenuity’s flight plan begins with the helicopter ascending to 33 feet (10 meters), then heading southwest for about 492 feet (150 meters). When it achieves that distance, the rotorcraft will begin acquiring color imagery of an area of interest as it translates to the south about 50-66 feet (15-20 meters). Stereo imagery of the sand ripples and outcrops of bright rocks at the site will help demonstrate the value of an aerial perspective for future missions....

NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere mission — AIM for short — spotted the summer’s first noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds on December 8, 2020. In the days that followed, the fine wisps of cloud slowly grew into slight puffs high over Antarctica. Typically, they spin like cotton candy into a mass that blankets the poles, but this season is off to a slow start, and the clouds are sparser than usual....

We captured new awe-inspiring views of the universe … And we witnessed a first-of-its-kind mission hit its mark … Here’s a look back at those and other things we did this year at NASA. In 2022, NASA launched their mega Moon rocket for the first time – sending the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon, they kicked off a new era in astronomy with record-breaking new imagery from the Webb Space Telescope, they moved an asteroid in humanity’s first-ever planetary defense demonstration and much more....