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The mystery of Mercury’s missing meteorites, and how we may have finally found some

Most meteorites that have reached Earth come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But we have 1,000 or so meteorites that come from the moon and Mars. This is probably a result of asteroids hitting their surfaces and ejecting material toward our planet.

It should also be physically possible for such debris to reach the Earth from Mercury, another nearby rocky body. But so far, none have been confirmed to come from there—presenting a longstanding mystery.

A new study that my colleagues and I conducted has discovered two meteorites that could have a Mercurian origin. If confirmed, they would offer a rare window into Mercury’s formation and evolution, potentially reshaping our understanding of the planet nearest the sun. Our work is published in the journal Icarus.

Computational trick enables better understanding of exotic state of matter

It can be found inside gas giants such as Jupiter and is briefly created during meteorite impacts or in laser fusion experiments: warm dense matter. This exotic state of matter combines features of solid, liquid and gaseous phases. Until now, simulating warm dense matter accurately has been considered a major challenge.

An international team led by researchers from the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has succeeded in describing this state of matter much more accurately than before using a new computational method. The approach could advance and help in the synthesis of new high-tech materials.

The team presents its results in the journal Nature Communications.

The Minds That Left Reality | Diaspora

Greg Egan’s Diaspora is one of the most ambitious and mind-bending science fiction novels ever published. It came out in 1997 and originally started as a short story called “Wang’s Carpets.” That story ended up as a chapter in the novel. Diaspora is: dense, smart, and way ahead of its time.
This is hard science fiction to the core. Egan invents entire new branches of physics. He reimagines life, consciousness, time, space — even what it means to be human. The book doesn’t ease you in. There’s a glossary, invented physics theories like Kozuch Theory, and characters that don’t even have genders. But if you stick with it, what you get isn’t just a story, it’s a look at what the future might actually become.
By the year 2,975, humanity isn’t one species anymore. It’s split into three groups: Fleshers: The biological humans, including the “statics” (unchanged baseline humans) and all sorts of heavily modified versions — underwater people, gene-hacked thinkers, even “dream apes” who gave up speech to live closer to nature. Gleisners: AIs in robotic bodies that live in space. They care about the physical world and experience time like regular humans. They’re kind of old-school — still sending ships to the stars, trying to build things in real space. Citizens: These are digital minds that live entirely in simulated worlds called polises.

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Orbiter pair expands view of Martian ionosphere

Like Earth, Mars is surrounded by an ionosphere—the part of its upper atmosphere where radiation from the sun knocks electrons off of atoms and molecules, creating charged particles. The Martian ionosphere is complex and continuously changes over the course of the day, but its role in atmospheric dynamics and radio communication signals means understanding it is key for Mars exploration.

One way to study the Martian is with radio occultation, in which a spacecraft orbiting Mars sends a to a receiver on Earth. When it skims across the Martian ionosphere, the signal bends slightly. Researchers can measure this refraction to learn about Martian ionospheric properties such as electron density and temperature. However, the relative positions of Mars, Earth, and the sun mean conventional radio occultation cannot measure the middle of the Martian day.

Now, in an article published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Jacob Parrot and colleagues deepen our understanding of the Martian ionosphere using an approach called mutual radio occultation, in which the radio signal is sent not from an orbiter to Earth but between two Mars orbiters. As one orbiter rises or sets behind Mars from the other’s perspective, the signal passes through the ionosphere and refracts according to the ionosphere’s properties.

The Exploration Company claims partial success of Mission Possible reentry spacecraft

WASHINGTON — The Exploration Company said it achieved “partial success” on a test flight of a reentry capsule but lost the spacecraft before it splashed down.

The company launched Mission Possible, a 1.6-ton reentry capsule, on SpaceX’s Transporter-14 rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 carrying Mission Possible and the other rideshare payloads lifted off at 5:25 p.m. Eastern June 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Mission Possible was the last payload scheduled to be deployed on Transporter-14, about two hours and 45 minutes after liftoff. The capsule would then perform a controlled reentry and splashdown in the north Pacific Ocean and then be recovered by a ship.

ANALEMMA TOWER — Clouds Architecture Office

Analemma inverts the traditional diagram of an earth-based foundation, instead depending on a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended. This system is referred to as the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS)

Which is based on the principles of a conventional space elevator. By placing a large asteroid into orbit over earth, a high strength cable can be lowered towards the surface of earth from which a super tall tower can be suspended. Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location. The proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one fifth the cost of New York City construction.

Chart plotting tallest buildings in the world and their year of completion.

“Like Nothing Ever Seen Before”: Astronomers Discover a Colossal Milky Way Cloud Containing the Mass of 160,000 Suns

IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 Astronomers discovered a colossal molecular cloud named M4.7–0.8 in the Milky Way, weighing as much as 160,000 suns. 🔭 The Green Bank Telescope was instrumental in identifying this cloud located 23,000 light-years away, revealing its pivotal role in material transport. ⭐ Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) like M4.7–0.8 are critical for understanding

“Scientists Stunned by Cosmic Wall”: This Gigantic 33-Billion-Light-Year Structure Just Redefined the Size of Our Observable Universe

IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 The Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall is the largest known structure in the universe, spanning 62 billion light-years. 💥 Gamma-ray bursts serve as cosmic lighthouses, helping astronomers map distant regions of the universe. 🧐 This discovery challenges the cosmological principle, which assumes the universe is homogeneous and isotropic on large scales. 🔭

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