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Volcanic eruptions may have delivered hidden ice to Mars’s equator

Explosive volcanic eruptions on early Mars may have transported water ice to equatorial regions, according to a modeling study published in Nature Communications. The authors suggest that these eruptions could have led to conditions that allow these ice deposits to still exist under the surface today, which would expand our knowledge of Mars’s terrain for future exploration.

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S.C. officer cleared in response to mass shooting that killed 1, injured 11

The Myrtle Beach officer made the “conscious decision to fire his weapon even though the sidewalk was crowded” in order “to protect the lives of innocent bystanders,” according to the report

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Modular robots could both explore off-world and build infrastructure

Modularity is taking off in more ways than one in space exploration. The design of the upcoming “Lunar Gateway” space station is supposed to be modular, with different modules being supplied by different organizations. In an effort to extend that thinking down to rovers on the ground, researchers at Germany’s space agency (DLR), developed an architecture where a single, modular rover could be responsible for both exploration and carrying payloads around the moon or Mars. The study is published in Acta Astronautica.

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Arab scholars may have noted the supernovae of 1006 and 1181 AD

It’s great to see old astronomical observations come to light. Not only can these confirm or refute what’s known about historic astronomical events, but they can describe what early observers actually saw.

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Compact laser-plasma accelerator can generate muons on demand for imaging

Muon beams can now be created in a device that is the length of a ruler.

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Mysterious gullies on Mars appear to have been carved by burrowing CO₂ ice blocks

Did life really exist on Mars after all? Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence for this yet. Nevertheless, it would seem that some form of life was the driving force behind the mysterious Martian dune gullies. Earth scientist Dr. Lonneke Roelofs from Utrecht University has investigated how these gullies were formed. In a test setup, she observed that blocks of CO2 ice “dug” these gullies in a unique way.

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Tidal forces heat white dwarfs to unexpected temperatures in tight binary orbits

White dwarfs are the compact remnants of stars that have stopped nuclear burning, a fate that will eventually befall our sun. These extremely dense objects are degenerate stars because their structure is counterintuitive: the heavier they are, the smaller they are.

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Software solution can correct image blurring by James Webb Space Telescope

A pair of Sydney Ph.D. students helped sharpen the view of humanity’s most powerful space observatory—without leaving Earth. As an indelible reminder of this thrilling result, Louis Desdoigts, now a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden in the Netherlands, and his colleague Max Charles, had tattoos of the instrument their work has repaired inked on their arms.

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Exploring the hidden rings of the Milky Way

Radio astronomy opens a window onto the invisible universe. While our eyes can detect visible light, countless objects in space emit radiation at much longer wavelengths, in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Where visible light gets blocked by interstellar dust, radio waves pass through unrestricted, revealing objects that remain completely invisible to traditional telescopes.

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Geologists discover the first evidence of 4.5-billion-year-old ‘proto Earth’

Scientists at MIT and elsewhere have discovered extremely rare remnants of “proto Earth,” which formed about 4.5 billion years ago, before a colossal collision irreversibly altered the primitive planet’s composition and produced Earth as we know today. Their findings, reported today in the journal Nature Geosciences, will help scientists piece together the primordial starting ingredients that forged early Earth and the rest of the solar system.

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Deep blue organic light-emitting diode operates at just 1.5 V

A deep blue organic light-emitting diode (OLED) developed by researchers at Science Tokyo operates on just a single 1.5 V, overcoming the high-voltage and color-purity problems that have long limited blue OLEDs. The breakthrough was achieved by introducing a new molecular dopant that prevents charge trapping, a problem that previously hampered the performance of low-voltage OLEDs. The resulting device produces sharp blue emissions that meet BT.2020 standards, paving the way towards brighter, more energy-efficient displays.

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Quantum crystals offer a blueprint for the future of computing and chemistry

Imagine industrial processes that make materials or chemical compounds faster, cheaper, and with fewer steps than ever before. Imagine processing information in your laptop in seconds instead of minutes or a supercomputer that learns and adapts as efficiently as the human brain. These possibilities all hinge on the same thing: how electrons interact in matter.

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Video: Man strikes off-duty Wis. officer with gun, points it at him before fatal OIS

While driving to work, the Milwaukee officer’s vehicle collided with another car, and the other driver struck the officer in the face with a gun

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BWC: Man grabs at Ore. officer’s gun, tries to choke him during 4-minute struggle

During the struggle, one Portland officer was on the ground wrestling with the suspect, while the other used a TASER and eventually a neck hold to subdue the suspect

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Researchers achieve atomic-scale control of quantum interference

In a study published in Nature Communications, a research team demonstrates the all-electrical control of quantum interference in individual atomic spins on a surface.

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