Before the Galileo spacecraft was destroyed two decades ago, it detected several chemicals on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, including carbon dioxide. Now, a couple of studies using observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggest that the carbon dioxide on Europa's surface came from the ocean hidden underneath its icy shell. Further, the researchers have come to the conclusion that it's pretty recent in origin — geologically speaking, at least. 

The observations made using the telescope's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument showed scientists that the carbon dioxide on Europa is most abundant in an area called Tara Regio, or "chaos terrain." In the images above, you'll see Tara Regio as the yellowish area to the left of the moon's center. 

Emily Martin, a planetary geologist at the National Air and Space Museum, told Scientific American that scientists believe Tara Regio's ice surface broke up when the weather got warm enough at one point. That caused the water from the subsurface ocean to come up, until it got cold again to create a slushy icy water sort of area. It's worth noting that previous Hubble observations of the region show that it also contains table salt, which indicates that saltwater, indeed, could've risen up to the surface of the moon. 

If Europa's carbon dioxide truly did come from its ocean instead of from meteors or other sources, then it would establish a big similarity between our planet and the moon. Europa is one of the objects in our solar system that's under observation for potentially having the conditions to support life. In April this year, the European Space Agency launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer or JUICE to make detailed observations of the planet's ocean-bearing moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Meanwhile, NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will focus on the potential for life in the moon's ocean, is scheduled to take off sometime next year.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the philanthropic organization created in 2015 by Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg, announced a bold new generative AI initiative today. The group is funding and building a high-end GPU cluster that will use AI to create predictive models of healthy and diseased cells; it hopes they’ll help researchers better understand the human body’s cells and cellular reactions. The group believes the collection of computers will help it achieve its incredibly lofty goal of helping to “cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of this century.”

“Researchers are gathering more data than ever before about the trillions of cells within our bodies, and it’s too complex for our brains to grapple with,” Jeff MacGregor, CZI vice president of communications, wrote in an emailed statement to Engadget. He lists an example of imaging one cell at nanometer resolution, which would use the same amount of data as 83,000 photos on a smartphone. Sifting through the finer details of a cache of cellular models like that is where generative AI could play a role.

The system will use a cluster of over 1,000 GPUs to train AI large language models (LLMs) on human cells. “LLMs have done an impressive job at helping us understand protein structure, and we think they will be equally great at helping us understand more complex structures like cells,” MacGregor said. He expects the AI models to draw insights and conclusions beyond even the capabilities of a team of human experts. “But also, it’s about the speed at which they can do this. It would take that team of experts years to draw the types of insights rather than weeks that it will take for the models to do so.”

Chan lists other examples of how LLMs could tackle biomedicine’s problems. “AI models could predict how an immune cell responds to an infection, what happens at the cellular level when a child is born with a rare disease, or even how a patient’s body will respond to a new medication,” the co-founder and co-CEO said. “We hope that this collaborative effort will generate new insights about the fundamental characteristics of our cells.”

The group describes the GPU clusters as one of the first to power “openly available” models of human cells, suggesting the investment could yield dividends for under-funded researchers with bright ideas. Examples of data the models will train on include those integrated into the Chan Zuckerberg Cell by Gene tool (with its existing database of over 50 million cells), resources from CZ Science research institutes and publicly available datasets. CZI Head of Science Stephen Quake describes one of the project’s goals as creating a “virtual biology simulator.”

“AI is creating new opportunities in biomedicine, and building a high-performance computing cluster dedicated to life science research will accelerate progress on important scientific questions about how our cells work,” said Zuckerberg. “Developing digital models capable of predicting all cell types and cell states from the genome will help researchers better understand our cells and how they behave in health and disease.”

The newly upgraded particle accelerator at the DoE’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has produced its first X-rays. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) upgrade, LCLS-II, can emit up to a million X-ray pulses per second (8,000 times more than the original) and an almost continuous beam 10,000 times brighter than its predecessor. Researchers believe it will enable unprecedented research into “atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena” and shed new light on quantum computing, communications, clean energy and medicine.

One of the keys to the accelerator’s powerful upgrade is its cooling abilities. The original LCLS, which went online in 2009, was capped at 120 pulses per second because of the natural limits of how many electrons could simultaneously travel through the accelerator’s room-temperature copper pipes. But the updated version includes 37 cryogenic modules cooled to negative 456 degrees Fahrenheit (colder than outer space), allowing it to “boost electrons to high energies with nearly zero energy loss.” The new accelerator will work in parallel with the existing copper one.

SLAC researchers say the new capabilities will allow them to examine details of quantum materials with unprecedented resolution while enabling new forms of quantum computing and “reveal unpredictable and fleeting chemical events” to help advance clean energy tech. In addition, they say it could help scientists develop new pharmaceuticals by studying how biological molecules work on an unprecedented scale. Finally, they stated that its unmatched 8,000 flashes per second will “open up entirely new fields of scientific investigation.”

SLAC

SLAC researchers began envisioning upgrades to the original LCLS in 2010. The project has since gone through $1.1 billion and has involved “thousands of scientists, engineers, and technicians across DOE, as well as numerous institutional partners.” It required numerous “cutting-edge components,” including a new electron source, two cryoplants to produce refrigerant and two new undulators to generate X-rays from the beam. Multiple institutions contributed to the endeavor, including five US national labs (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, among others) and Cornell University.

“Experiments in each of these areas are set to begin in the coming weeks and months, attracting thousands of researchers from across the nation and around the world,” said LCLS Director Mike Dunne. “DOE user facilities such as LCLS are provided at no cost to the users — we select on the basis of the most important and impactful science. LCLS-II is going to drive a revolution across many academic and industrial sectors. I look forward to the onslaught of new ideas — this is the essence of why national labs exist.”

Sir Ian Wilmut, the scientist who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, has died at 79. The University of Edinburgh, where he served as a professor before his 2012 retirement, announced his passing today. Dolly was the first successful cloning of a mammal from an adult somatic cell, demonstrating the viability of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The controversial milestone helped pave the way for today’s research on regenerative medicine.

Born near Stratford-upon-Avon (also Shakespeare’s birthplace) in 1944, Wilmut discovered an interest in biology while at school in Scarborough; he later switched his major at the University of Nottingham from agriculture to animal science, kicking off the work he would be most known for. His Ph.D. studies at the University of Cambridge foreshadowed his later breakthroughs, focusing on “the preservation of semen and embryos for freezing.” In 1972, he became the first scientist to successfully freeze, thaw and transfer a calf embryo, which he called “Frostie,” to a surrogate mother.

Wilmut’s work at The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh continued to push the boundaries of animal genetics. He strived to create modified sheep that would produce milk with proteins that could treat human diseases. A year before Dolly, he successfully cloned two lambs (Megan and Morag) whose cells were taken from sheep embryos.

University of Edinburgh

Dolly’s successful birth in 1996 marked the first time a mammal was successfully cloned from an adult cell. The scientifically groundbreaking announcement also set off a media firestorm as experts and casual observers wrestled with lab-made mammals’ ethical implications. Specifically, many wondered: If they’re doing sheep now, how long until they clone humans? Religious groups accused the researchers of “playing God.” Even those who focused more on the natural world than supernatural ones worried about the potential for making “designer humans” or something out of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

While Dolly proved that cells could be used to create a copy of the animal they came from, Wilmut’s next experiment proved that they could also be altered. Polly, born in 1997, was the first genetically modified cloned mammal. His team spliced the host’s genes with a human gene to create a sheep that would produce a protein missing from people with hemophilia. Polly was Wilmut’s last cloning experiment.

Wilmut moved to the University of Edinburgh the following decade, focusing on using cloning to make stem cells for regenerative medicine. He was knighted in 2008 and retired in 2012. Wilmut was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018 and became a patron of a new research program at the university working to slow the disease’s progression with next-gen therapies.

According toThe Guardian, Sir Ian is survived by his wife Sara, his children — Helen, Naomi and Dean — and his five grandchildren: Daniel, Matthew, Isaac, Tonja and Tobias.

SpaceX's Starship test launch in April will be its last for the foreseeable future. The FAA announced Friday that it has closed its investigation into April's mishap, but that the company will not be allowed to resume test launches until it addresses a list of 63 "corrective actions" for its launch system.

"The vehicle’s structural margins appear to be better than we expected," SpaceX CEO and mascot Elon Musk joked with reporters in the wake of the late April test launch. Per the a report from the US Fish and WIldlife Service, however, the failed launch resulted in a 385-acre debris field that saw concrete chunks flung more than 2,600 feet from the launchpad, a 3.5-acre wildfire and "a plume cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site.”

"Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices," the FAA release reads. Furthermore, the FAA says that SpaceX will have to not only complete that list but also apply for and receive a modification to its existing license "that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch." In short, SpaceX has reached the "finding out" part.

SpaceX released a blog post shortly after the FAA's announcement was made public, obliquely addressing the issue. "Starship’s first flight test provided numerous lessons learned," the post reads, crediting its "rapid iterative development approach" with both helping develop all of SpaceX's vehicles to this point and "directly contributing to several upgrades being made to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure." 

The company admitted that its Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS), which is designed to self-destruct a rocket when it goes off its flightpath but before it hits the ground, suffered "an unexpected delay" — that lasted 40 seconds. SpaceX did not elaborate on what cause, if any, it found for the fault but has reportedly since "enhanced and requalified the AFSS to improve system reliability."

"SpaceX is also implementing a full suite of system performance upgrades unrelated to any issues observed during the first flight test," the blog reads. Those improvements include a new hot-stage separation system which will more effectively decouple the first and second stages, a new electronic "Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system" for its Raptor heavy rockets, and "significant upgrades" to the orbital launch mount and pad system which just so happened to have failed in the first test but is, again, completely unrelated to this upgrade. Whether those improvements overlap with the 63 that the FAA is imposing, could not be confirmed at the time of publication as the FAA had not publically released them. 

Clogs in water recovery systems on the international space station have been so backed up that hoses have had to be sent back to Earth for cleaning and refurbishing. This is thanks to the build up of biofilms: a consortium of microorganisms that stick to each other, and often also to surfaces — the insides of water recover tubing, for instance. These microbial or fungal growths can clog filters in water processing systems and make astronauts sick.

So space, like Earth, has a germ problem – so what? Because biofilms can compromise the integrity of and damage equipment, including space suits, recycling units, radiators and water treatment facilities, it can cost space agencies loads of money to replace affected materials. For the full year of 2023, NASA has dedicated a whopping $1.3 billion as part of its budget to resupply its cargo missions to the ISS. Preventing microbial growth in encapsulated space missions will be especially critical for long-haul journeys to places like the moon or Mars, where a quick return to Earth for repairs or treatment of sick astronauts is less feasible.

In a cross collaboration between researchers at the University of Colorado, MIT and the NASA Ames Research Center, researchers studied samples from the space station using a specific and well-understood gram-negative kind of bacteria. The scientists also joined forces with experts at LiquiGlide, a company run by MIT researcher Kripa Varanasi that specializes in “eliminating the friction between solids and liquids.” The multidisciplinary study found covering surfaces with a thin layer of nucleic acids prevented bacterial growth on the ISS-exposed samples. 

Space Biofilm Program

The scientists concluded that these acids carried a slight negative electric charge that stopped microbes from sticking to surfaces. It's worth noting though, that the bacteria were up against a unique physical barrier as well as a chemical one: testing surfaces were etched into "nanograss." These silicon spikes, which resembled a tiny forest, were then slicked with a silicon oil, creating a slippery surface which biofilms struggled to adhere to.

Applying this specific method of covering surfaces with nucleic acids to prevent biofilm buildup showed that in the terrestrial samples, microbial formation was reduced by about 74 percent. Surprisingly the space station samples showed an even more drastic reduction of about 86 percent. However, one recommendation the team has made, based on these initial results, is that longer-duration tests should be carried out on a future mission. Pamela Flores, a microbiology expert at the University of Colorado who participated in the study said that, “We don’t know for how long it will be able to keep up this performance,” in a statement. “So we definitely recommend a longer time of incubation, and also, if possible, a continuous analysis, and not just end points.”

Japan's space agency has launched a rocket on September 6 at 7:42 PM EDT carrying a telescope that's more advanced than NASA's Chandra and other X-ray observatories already in orbit. The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission — or XRISM but pronounced as "crism" — is a mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions by the European Space Agency. Lia Corrales, a University of Michigan astronomer and mission participant, told The New York Times that XRISM represents "the next step in X-ray observations."

The telescope is considered more powerful than its predecessors because of its tools. One of them, called Resolve, is a microcalorimeter spectrometer with the capability to measure tiny increases in temperature when X-rays hit its 6-by-6-pixel detector. It must operate in an environment that's a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, enabled by a multistage mechanical cooling process inside its refrigerator-sized container with liquid helium. But so long as it's working, the tool can measure each individual X-ray energy and can provide information on its source's composition, motion and physical state. 

The Times says the mission team expects Resolve's spectroscopic data to be 30 times sharper than what Chandra's instruments can provide. It can detect X-rays with energies that range from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, which NASA says can give us the data needed to know more about the hottest regions, the largest structures and the objects with the strongest gravity pull in the universe. XRISM's science operations won't begin until January, though, since scientists still have to switch on its instruments and tune them in the next few months. 

In addition to XRISM, the rocket also blasted off to space carrying the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission. The small-scale lander was nicknamed "Moon Sniper," because it was designed to demonstrate that a pinpoint landing within 100 meters of a specific target is possible. Based on the latest information from JAXA, XRISM had already separated from its rocket and had already been inserted into orbit. Meanwhile, SLIM will keep traveling for months until it reaches the moon. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to recreate India's IT boom with space, a government official told Reuters. And the Indian Space Research Organisation's efforts do show that the country truly is serious about wanting to be known as a major player. Just a week after Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the moon, the country's space agency has already launched a rocket carrying Aditya-L1, the first Indian mission dedicated to observing the sun. 

Aditya-L1 will travel 930,000 miles over four months until it reaches the L1 Lagrange Point between the sun and our planet. A Lagrange point is a place of equilibrium between two massive orbiting bodies where objects tend to stay put, thereby minimizing a spacecraft's fuel consumption. The spacecraft will remain in orbit to collect data that scientists are hoping would help them figure out why the sun's corona is hotter than its surface. 

They're also hoping that the mission could provide information on how solar radiation and various solar phenomena affect communication systems and satellites, as well as power grids. By understanding those effects, space companies and agencies can better protect satellites in orbit. If scientists can predict coronal mass ejections, for instance, they can alert operators so that they can shut down their satellites' power before the phenomenon occurs. In addition, scientists are hoping that Aditya-L1 can shed light on solar wind behavior and on how the sun's activity can influence the Earth's climate in the long run. 

Sankar Subramanian, principal scientist of the mission, said: "We have made sure we will have a unique data set that is not currently available from any other mission. This will allow us to understand the sun, its dynamics as well as the inner heliosphere, which is an important element for current-day technology, as well as space-weather aspects."

India already has several other missions lined up for the coming years. It's working with Japan to send an uncrewed lander and rover to explore the south pole region of the moon by 2025. Before that, by next year, it's planning to launch orbiters to observe Mars and Venus. 

We know the sun belches out solar winds, but the origin of these streams of charged particles remain a mystery and has been the subject of numerous studies over the past decades. The images captured last year by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument aboard ESA's and NASA's Solar Orbiter, however, may have finally given us the knowledge needed to explain what powers these winds. In a paper published in Science, a team of researchers described observing large numbers of jets coming out of a dark region of the sun called a "coronal hole" in the images taken by the spacecraft. 

The team called them "picoflare jets," because they contain around one-trillionth the energy of what the largest solar flares can generate. These picoflare jets measure a few hundred kilometers in length, reach speeds of around 100 kilometers per second and only last between 20 and 100 seconds. Still, the researchers believe they have the power to emit enough high-temperature plasma to be considered a substantial source of our system's solar winds. While Coronal holes have long been known as source regions for the phenomenon, scientists are still trying to figure out the mechanism of how plasma streams emerge from them exactly. This discovery could finally be the answer they'd been seeking for years. 

Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, the study's primary author from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, told Space: "The picoflare jets that we observed are the smallest, and energetically the weakest, type of jets in the solar corona that were not observed before...Still, the energy content of a single picoflare jet that lives for about 1 minute is equal to the average power consumed by about 10,000 households in the UK over an entire year."

Chitta's team will continue monitoring coronal holes and other potential sources of solar winds using the Solar Orbiter going forward. In addition to gathering data that may finally give us answers about the plasma flows responsible for producing auroras here on our planet, their observations could also shed light on why the sun's corona or atmosphere is much, much hotter than its surface. 

NASA has published the first maps from its new space-based pollution instrument, TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Although you won’t be shocked to learn it reveals higher pollution rates in metropolitan areas, the tool can help scientists better study North American air quality on an hourly basis. “Neighborhoods and communities across the country will benefit from TEMPO’s game-changing data for decades to come,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote in a press release today.

The instrument, which launched in April and orbits at 22,000 miles above the equator, can help scientists better study the health impacts of pollutants “at the neighborhood scale.” It can take hourly measurements, providing insights into the effects of rush-hour traffic, smoke and ash from forest fires and how fertilizer affects farm country. The tool measures sunlight bounced off the Earth’s surface, atmosphere and clouds. “Gases in the atmosphere absorb the sunlight, and the resulting spectra are then used to determine the concentrations of several gases in the air, including nitrogen dioxide,” NASA explained.

NASA says it will share its data with partner agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Since taking the first measurements earlier this month, teams have been busy checking and calibrating the satellite’s systems ahead of regular hourly operations kicking off in October. NASA views the data as a boon in its quest to reach the Biden administration’s climate goals.

NASA

The instrument beamed back its first images on August 2nd, showing the I-95 corridor in the Northeast (New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC areas), a slice of the South (central and eastern Texas stretching to New Orleans) and a section of the Southwest (Los Angeles to Las Vegas). As expected, the maps reveal heavy nitrogen dioxide density over cities and their suburban sprawl.

“Detailed views of three regions show high levels of nitrogen dioxide over cities in the morning, and enhanced levels of nitrogen dioxide over major highways,” NASA wrote today. “As the day progresses, the morning pollution often dissipates. Later in the afternoon, it will rise again as the cities enter their second rush hour of the day.”

“This summer, millions of Americans felt firsthand the effect of smoke from forest fires on our health,” said Nelson. “NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are committed to making it easier for everyday Americans and decisionmakers to access and use TEMPO data to monitor and improve the quality of the air we breathe, benefitting life here on Earth.”