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NASA‘s Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale Crater on Mars, has revealed critical insights into the planet’s ancient climate. The research uncovers how Mars transformed from a potentially habitable environment, abundant in liquid water, to the cold, arid landscape we see today. An artist’s concept illustrates early Mars, where liquid water may have existed in river and lake formations. Geological evidence suggests that ancient Mars had a denser atmosphere capable of supporting significant bodies of water. However, as the planet cooled and lost its global magnetic field, solar winds eroded much of its atmosphere, leading to the inhospitable conditions present now.

Findings from the Curiosity Rover

Curiosity has measured the isotopic composition of carbon-rich minerals (carbonates) found in Gale Crater. David Burtt from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center stated, “The isotope values of these carbonates point toward extreme amounts of evaporation, suggesting they likely formed in a climate that could only support transient liquid water.” This indicates that while the surface environment was not suitable for life, underground habitats may still exist.

The Role of Isotopes in Understanding Mars

Isotopes, which are variants of elements differing in mass, play a vital role in understanding Mars’ climatic history. During evaporation, lighter carbon and oxygen isotopes escape into the atmosphere, leaving behind heavier ones in carbonate rocks, which serve as climate records.

Conclusion: Implications for Habitability

The study proposes two mechanisms for carbonate formation: through cycles of wet and dry conditions or in extremely salty water under icy conditions. Co-author Jennifer Stern noted that these scenarios indicate varying levels of habitability on ancient Mars. These findings, supported by isotopic evidence from Curiosity’s instruments, contribute to our understanding of Mars’ climate evolution and its potential to have supported life in the past.

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Webb Telescope Uncovers Hidden Active Galactic Nuclei

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May 31, 2025

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Webb Telescope Uncovers Hidden Active Galactic Nuclei

An obscured population of huge and massive black holes has been revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope. This discovery could bridge the gap between quasars and the Little Red Dots. These are active galactic nuclei galaxies (AGNs), overlapped or blurred by active blackholes, occupied by dust. Their bright nature makes them detectable in spite of the dust surrounding them. However, during December 2022, astronomers found a new type of AGN that they called Little Red Dots, because they appear as tiny, fat red spots.

Connection of AGN with Quasars is Still a Mystery

For more than a decade, the study has been led by Dale Kocevski, an astronomer at Colby College. Their team includes scientists like Jorryt Matthee, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Science and Technology, who contributed to the understanding of little dots and their connection with quasars. Their connection is still a mystery that prompts them to find the objects with properties in between.

The Old Universe Abundantly Occupied by Hidden Quasars

In a new study Yoshiki Matsuoka, associate professor at the Research Center for Space, told Live Science, the scientists are surprised to find that the not-so-clear quasars had occupied a large portion of the early universe. Out of 13 galaxies, 9 were found to have clear signs of active supermassive blackholes in connection with the heavy dust that hides them.

Findings Can Give Insights into the Study of Universe Evolution

Jorryt Matthee, the head of the old research, said that although there are abundant new objects found in the universe, the gap between the two known populations found by JWST is too high, and thus, there is a possibility that these belong to that missing population lying in between the known ones, providing fresh insights into how these giants formed and evolved in the early universe. The findings were reported on May 7, 2025, in the preprint database arXiv.

Future Study Scopes to Unveil the Nature of LRD

The team is planning to observe 30 more objects from the sample of the Subaru Telescope. This can reveal that the behaviour of the hidden quasars aligns with Little Red Dots. Furthermore, the gases that surround them can reveal the mysterious nature of LRD.

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SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Reuses Booster, Gathers Key Data Despite Loss

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May 31, 2025

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SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Reuses Booster, Gathers Key Data Despite Loss

SpaceX launched its ninth Starship test flight on May 27 that featured the first-ever significant reuse of Starship hardware. As planned on Flight 9, Starship’s two stages separated successfully, and the upper stage even reached space. However, both were ultimately lost before completing their objectives. Despite these setbacks, the mission yielded valuable data which inspires SpaceX’s iterative approach to innovation as it aims to create a fully reusable launch system for space missions. This test flight exhibited successful reuse of a Super Heavy booster and aimed to demonstrate improved hardware performance.

Previous test flights

According to official site of SpaceX, Starship’s two stages are one giant booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply “Ship.” Both are powered by SpaceX’s new Raptor engine — 33 of them for Super Heavy and six for Ship.

On Flight 7 and Flight 8 the Super Heavy performed flawlessly, acing its engine burn and then returning to Starbase for a catch by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. But Ship had problems: It exploded less than 10 minutes after launch on both missions, raining debris down on the Turks and Caicos Islands and The Bahamas, respectively.

Advancements in flight 9

In flight 9, SpaceX reused a Super Heavy booster for the first time, swapping out just four of its 33 Raptor engines after its initial flight in January. The booster also conducted a new atmospheric entry experiment, entering at a higher angle to collect data on aerodynamic control. Meanwhile, Ship (the upper stage) was tasked with deploying eight dummy Starlink satellites.

Despite the promising advances, Flight 9 encountered several failures. Super Heavy broke apart roughly six minutes after launch during its return burn, and Ship lost control due to a fuel tank leak. The upper stage began tumbling, which prevented a planned in-space engine relight and led to a destructive reentry over the Indian Ocean. Still, SpaceX gained critical data, particularly on tile performance and active cooling systems.

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7,100-Year-Old Skeleton Reveals Unknown Human Lineage in China

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May 31, 2025

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7,100-Year-Old Skeleton Reveals Unknown Human Lineage in China

A new study on a 7,100-year-old skeleton from China has revealed a “ghost” lineage that only existed in theories until now. Skeleton of the early Neolithic woman, known as Xingyi_EN, unearthed at the Xingyi archaeological site in southwestern China’s Yunnan province. Her DNA links her to a deeply divergent human population that may have contributed to the ancestry of modern Tibetans. This study also reveals a distinct Central Yunnan ancestry connected to early Austroasiatic-speaking groups. This discovery makes Yunnan as a key region to understand the ancient genetic history of East and Southeast Asia. The detailed analysis of 127 human genomes from southwestern China is published in a study in the journal Science.

According to the study, radiocarbon dating indicates Xingyi_EN lived around 7,100 years ago and isotope analysis suggests she lived as a hunter-gatherer. Genetic sequencing revealed her ancestry from a deeply diverged human lineage—now named the Basal Asian Xingyi lineage. This lineage diverged from other modern human groups over 40,000 years ago and remained isolated for thousands of years without mixing with other populations.

This “ghost” lineage does not match DNA from Neanderthals or Denisovans but appears to have later contributed to the ancestry of some modern Tibetans. Xingyi_EN represents the first physical evidence of this previously unknown population.

Yunnan’s significance as a reservoir of deep human diversity

Most of the skeletons that the researchers sampled were dated between 1,400 and 7,150 years ago and came from Yunnan province, which today has the highest ethnic and linguistic diversity in all of China.

“Ancient humans that lived in this region may be key to addressing several remaining questions on the prehistoric populations of East and Southeast Asia,” the researchers wrote in the study. Those unanswered questions include the origins of people who live on the Tibetan Plateau, as previous studies have shown that Tibetans have northern East Asian ancestry.

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