A QUT-led study analyzing data from NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered compelling evidence of multiple mineral-forming events just beneath the Martian surface—findings that bring scientists one step closer to answering the profound question: did life ever exist on Mars?
The QUT research team led by Dr. Michael Jones, from the Central Analytical Research Facility and the School of Chemistry and Physics, includes Associate Professor David Flannery, Associate Professor Christoph Schrank, Brendan Orenstein and Peter Nemere, together with researchers from North America and Europe.
The paper, “In-situ crystallographic mapping constrains sulfate precipitation and timing in Jezero crater, Mars” is published in Science Advances.
The study notes, “These findings underscore the complexity of Europa’s plume activity. Our results provide a framework to explore various plume characteristics, including gas drag, particle size, initial ejection velocities, and gas production rates, and the resulting plume morphologies and deposition outcomes.”
How do the water vapor plumes on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, contribute to the interaction between the moon’s surface and subsurface environments? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how gas drag could influence the direction of particles being emitted by Europa’s water vapor plumes, specifically regarding where they land on the surface, either near the plumes or farther out. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the surface-subsurface interactions on Europa and what this could mean for finding life as we know it.
Artist’s illustration of Europa’s water vapor plumes. (Credit: NASA/ESA/K. Retherford/SWRI)
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate how the speed and direction of dust particles emitted from the plumes could be influenced by a process called gas drag, which could decrease the speed and direction of dust particles exiting the plumes. In the end, the researchers found that gas drag greatly influences dust behavior, with smaller dust particles ranging in size from 0.001 to 0.1 micrometers becoming more spread out after eruption and larger dust particles ranging in size from 0.1 to 10 micrometers landing near the plume sites.
Tesla is advancing its full self-driving technology in Austin, Texas, with plans for an unsupervised robo taxi service by June 2025, positioning itself for significant revenue growth and regulatory approval through enhanced safety and efficiency ## ## Questions to inspire discussion Operational Efficiency.
🏭 Q: How is Tesla using unsupervised FSD at Giga Texas? A: Tesla is using unsupervised FSD to drive new Model Y and Cybertruck units from production lines to outbound logistics lots, logging over 50,000 driverless miles between Texas and Fremont factory deployments.
💰 Q: What are the benefits of automating car movement at Giga Texas? A: Automating car movement reduces labor costs, improves throughput, creates a scalable logistics model, and boosts production margins. Regulatory Advantage.
🚗 Q: How does Tesla benefit from Texas regulations regarding autonomous vehicles? A: Texas laws don’t require permits for autonomous vehicles, providing Tesla with a regulatory advantage and a lower-risk proving ground before public rollout of robo taxis. Technological Edge.
🖥️ Q: What hardware advantages does Tesla’s FSD system have over competitors? A: Tesla’s vision-only FSD with Tesla-designed HW4 uses no LIDAR or radar, accelerating the data flywheel with unsupervised miles accumulated. Future Prospects.
🚕 Q: When and where will Tesla launch its first public unsupervised robo taxi service? A: Tesla plans to launch its first public unsupervised robo taxi service in Austin as a pilot rollout in June 2025.
A new study in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society by researchers including István Szapudi of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Institute for Astronomy suggests the universe may rotate —just extremely slowly. The finding could help solve one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles.
“To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, who famously said ‘panta rhei’ (everything moves), we thought that perhaps panta kykloutai—everything turns,” said Szapudi.
Current models say the universe expands evenly in all directions, with no sign of rotation. This idea fits most of what astronomers observe. But it doesn’t explain the so-called Hubble tension—a long-standing disagreement between two ways of measuring how fast the universe is expanding.
“We named this galaxy Zhúlóng, meaning ‘Torch Dragon’ in Chinese mythology. In the myth, Zhúlóng is a powerful red solar dragon that creates day and night by opening and closing its eyes, symbolizing light and cosmic time,” team leader Mengyuan Xiao of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) said in a statement. “What makes Zhúlóng stand out is just how much it resembles the Milky Way in shape, size, and stellar mass.”
Another similarity between the Milky Way and this early cosmic dragon galaxy is the sizes of their stellar disks and the masses of those regions. Zhúlóng’s disk spans around 60,000 light-years and has a mass of 100 billion times that of the sun. The Milky Way’s disk is slightly wider at 100,000 light-years wide with a stellar mass estimated at around 46 billion solar masses.