On Mars, the past is written in stone—but the present is written in sand. Last week, Perseverance explored inactive megaripples to learn more about the wind-driven processes that are reshaping the Martian landscape every day.

After wrapping up its investigation at the contact between clay and olivine-bearing rocks at Westport, Perseverance is journeying south once more. Previously, attempts were made to drive uphill to visit a new rock exposure called Midtoya. However, a combination of the steep slope and rubbly, rock-strewn soil made drive progress difficult, and after several attempts, the decision was made to return to smoother terrain., the effort wasn’t fruitless, as the rover was able to gather data on new spherule-rich rocks thought to have rolled downhill from Midtoya, including the witch hat or helmet-shaped rock “Horneflya,” which has attracted much online interest.

More recently, Perseverance explored a site called Kerrlaguna where the steep slopes give way to a field of megaripples: large windblown sand formations up to 1 meter (about 3 feet) tall. The science team chose to perform a mini-campaign to make a detailed study of these features. Why such interest? While often the rover’s attention is focused on studying processes in Mars’ distant past that are recorded in ancient rocks, we still have much to learn about the modern Martian environment.

Here’s what that explosion looked like way up close.

A new Durham University study has found that a giant impact may not be responsible for the formation of Jupiter’s remarkable “dilute” core, challenging a theory about the planet’s history.

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a mystery at its heart. Unlike what scientists once expected, its core doesn’t have a sharp boundary but instead gradually blends into the surrounding layers of mostly hydrogen (a structure known as a dilute core).

How this dilute core formed has been a key question among scientists and astronomers ever since NASA’s Juno spacecraft first revealed its existence.

NASA is looking for volunteers. Anyone who can help is welcome, so if you ever dreamed of being an astronaut but never got the chance, now you can become part

Altair, Vega and Deneb can be seen shining with the Milky Way throughout August.

A new ultra-detailed map of the Sculptor Galaxy exposes stellar life and hidden structures, offering new insights into how small-scale processes influence entire galaxies. Astronomers have unveiled a remarkable new view of the Sculptor Galaxy, producing a highly detailed image that exposes featur

By analyzing the data from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) international database and the Small and Medium Aperture Telescope System (SMARTS), astronomers have inspected a nova in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) known as LMCN 2009-05a. Results of the study, published August 19 on the pre-print server arXiv, disentangle the nature and properties of this nova.