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New Modeling Study Reveals Surprisingly Calm Ocean Floor on Europa

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An in-depth analysis of the stresses, tides, and internal forces on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa indicates that the moon lacks the active submarine faults essential for robust hydrothermal circulation. This phenomenon significantly impacts Europa’s chemical energy and overall habitability.

A stunning view of Europa’s surface. Image scale is 1.6 km per pixel. North of Europa is on the right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

On Earth, tectonic activity is crucial for supporting diverse habitats that sustain life.

This interaction between water and rocks on the ocean floor can generate chemical energy essential for potential biological processes.

Thus, the existence of tectonic activity on a celestial body can indicate an environment conducive to supporting life.

Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, is believed to harbor an immense underground ocean beneath its frosty exterior.

While earlier studies hinted at volcanic activity beneath Europa’s ocean floor, the potential for tectonic movement had not been thoroughly explored until now.

“If we could survey those oceans using remote-controlled submarines, we predict we wouldn’t observe any new cracks, active volcanoes, or hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor,” stated Dr. Paul Byrne, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Geologically, nothing is changing there. Everything remains quiet.”

“In icy worlds like Europa, a tranquil ocean floor could suggest a lifeless ocean.”

Dr. Byrne and his team conducted comprehensive modeling to evaluate potential tectonic activity within Europa’s theorized subsurface ocean.

Their findings were compared against known behaviors on Earth’s ocean floor and Enceladus.

The researchers assessed stress from tidal forces, global contraction, mantle convection, and serpentinization— a geological process involving the interaction of rocks and water.

However, they concluded that these factors are unlikely to be driving tectonic activity, even along Europa’s existing fissures at present.

This discovery implies that water-rock interactions might be confined to the uppermost layers of the ocean floor, which limits the prospects for habitable conditions beneath Europa’s surface.

Future research aims to gather direct evidence regarding Europa’s geology and tectonics.

“Europa likely experiences tidal heating, which is why it hasn’t fully frozen,” Dr. Byrne noted.

“There may have been greater heating in its distant past.”

“However, currently, we do not observe eruptions from the ice as seen on Io. Our calculations indicate that the currents are simply not strong enough to foster significant geological activity on the ocean floor.”

For more details, refer to the results published in this week’s issue of Nature Communications.

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PK burn et al. 2026. There may be little or no active faults on Europa’s ocean floor today. Nat Commune 17, 4; doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-67151-3

Source: www.sci.news

Research on Modeling Unveils New Insights into Venus’ Crust

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Planetary scientists initially believed that Earth’s outer crust would become thicker over time, particularly due to the perceived absence of forces pushing it back into the planet’s interior. However, researchers from Open University, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and the Lunar and Planetary Institute suggest that processes involved in crustal transformation, centered around rock density and melting cycles, offer a different perspective.

An artistic interpretation of active volcanoes on Venus illustrates a subduction zone where the foreground crust of a topographical groove descends into the planet’s interior. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin.

The earth’s crust is rock-like and composed of massive, slowly migrating plates that fold and create faults through a process known as plate tectonics.

For instance, when two plates collide, a lighter plate can slide over a denser plate, forcing it downward towards the underlying mantle.

This phenomenon, referred to as subduction, plays a crucial role in regulating the thickness of the Earth’s crust.

As the rocks penetrate deeper into the planet’s interior, they undergo transformations due to increased temperature and pressure, a process known as metamorphosis, which is one contributing factor to volcanic activity.

“Conversely, Venus consists of a singular skin with no signs of subduction seen in Earth’s plate tectonics,” noted Justin Filibert, PhD, associate director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center for Astromaterial Research and Exploration Sciences.

Through modeling, Dr. Filibert and his team found that Venus’s crust averages about 40 km (25 miles) thick, with some areas reaching up to 65 km (40 miles).

“This is surprisingly thin compared to Earth’s conditions,” Dr. Filibert remarked.

“Our model suggests that as the crust thickens, it becomes so dense at the bottom that it either breaks off to merge with the mantle or heats up enough to melt.”

“Thus, while Venus lacks movable plates, its crust still goes through metamorphosis.”

“This finding marks a significant advancement in understanding geological processes and planetary evolution.”

“The breaking and melting of crustal materials can reintroduce water and elements back into the planet’s interior, fueling volcanic activity.”

“We are developing a new model for how materials are recycled within the planet, providing insights into the processes that can trigger volcanic eruptions of lava and gases.”

“It reshapes our understanding of how Venus’ geology, crust, and atmosphere interact.”

“The forthcoming phase involves gathering direct data on Venus’s crust to test and refine these models.”

“The extent of volcanic activity on Venus remains uncertain.”

“While we postulate numerous volcanic phenomena, research indicates a need for extensive data to validate our assumptions.”

Relevant survey findings will be published in the journal Nature Communications.

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J. Semprich et al. 2025. The thickness of the earth’s crust and the transformation of Venus as a driver for recycling. Nat Commun 16, 2905; doi:10.1038/s41467-025-58324-1

Source: www.sci.news

New modeling studies suggest that ratios of potassium to sodium intake can help regulate blood pressure

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Excessive dietary sodium increases blood pressure, while a high potassium diet has the opposite effect. The underlying mechanism is alleviated by sex and includes multiple organs and tissues. How do high potassium-induced alternatives in renal function differ between men and women with lower blood pressure? To answer these questions, a duo of researchers at the University of Waterloo conducted computer simulations to simulate the homeostasis of whole body fluids and electrolytes, simulating the effects of sodium and potassium intake on blood pressure.

Melissa Stadt & Anita Layton suggests that increasing the ratio of dietary potassium to sodium intake may be more effective in lowering blood pressure than simply reducing sodium intake. Image credit: Melissa Stadt & Anita Layton, doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00222.2024.

Hypertension affects more than 30% of adults around the world. It is the main cause of coronary heart disease and stroke, and can lead to other distress such as chronic kidney disease, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, and dementia.

“We usually recommend eating less salt when we have high blood pressure,” said Professor Anita Leighton, author of the study.

“Our research suggests that adding potassium-rich foods to a diet such as bananas and broccoli can have a greater impact on blood pressure than cutting off sodium.”

Potassium and sodium are both electrolytes, which help the body send electrical signals to contract muscles, affect the amount of water in the body, and perform other essential functions.

“Early humans ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. As a result, our body’s regulatory system may have evolved to work best on a high potassium, low sodium diet.”

“Today, Western diets tend to be much higher in sodium and lower in potassium.”

“It may explain why hypertension is seen primarily in industrialized societies, not isolated societies.”

Previous studies found that increased potassium intake helps control blood pressure, but researchers have developed a mathematical model that successfully identifies how potassium-sodium ratios affect the body.

The model also identifies how sex differences affect the relationship between potassium and blood pressure.

Scientists have found that men develop hypertension more easily than premenopausal women, but men are more likely to respond positively to an increased potassium-to-sodium ratio.

“Mathematical models like those used in this study allow these types of experiments to identify how different factors affect the body quickly, cheaply, and ethically,” they said.

Team’s paper Released in March 2025 American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology.

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Melissa Statt and Anita T. Leighton. Regulation of blood pressure by dietary potassium and sodium: Gender differences and modeling analysis. American Journal of Physiology-Renal PhysiologyPublished online on March 3, 2025. doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00222.2024

Source: www.sci.news

Xavier Le Pichon, Renowned Geophysicist Who Pioneered Earth’s Crust Movement Modeling, Passes Away at 87

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Xavier Le Pichon, a French geophysicist who revolutionized the way in which a pioneering model of the Earth’s tectonic plates was able to understand the movement of the Earth’s crust, and died on March 22 at his sister’s home in southern France. He was 87 years old.

His death was announced in a statement from Collegie de France, France’s premier educational institution. There, Dr. Le Picon was Professor Emeritus and Chairman of Geodynamics.

Dr. Le Picheon, who internized in Japanese concentration camps as a child, continued to build a second career as a deep sea explorer, working with Mother Teresa of India for a while. However, it was in the field of geodynamics that he made his biggest contribution. Use a computer to create a model of the Earth plate.

His formulation has six such plates, as he said when he won in 2002, “for what is essential to the structural symptoms of the Earth’s surface.” Balzan PrizeAwarded in science fields not covered by Nobel.

Plate tectonics with Earth’s surface studies is a “framework” for understanding earthquakes, volcanoes, and the Earth’s long-term “climate stability.” David BelkovichYale geophysicist. He added that Dr. Le Picon was one of the architects of the framework.

Professor Bercovici emailed him “one of the giants of the plate structure revolution, especially when practicing its mathematical theory.”

His work was built on the theory of plate tectonics developed by Princeton scientist W. Jason Morgan in 1967. “Now we are entering an age of quantification for tectonics,” wrote Dr. Le Picon.

“The University of Rochester has a great opportunity to develop a new world of geophysics,” said John Taldono, professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Pichon came to view the Earth as “an extraordinary creature with ocean and continental movement.”

After years of studying the ocean and its floors, including Columbia University, Dr. Lupicheon achieved a breakthrough in the mid-1960s. He called the “incredibly unpleasant” months of cruise hosted by Columbia, and observed a 37,000-mile-long ridge in the South Atlantic and Southwest Indian oceans.

The object was to detect seismic activity along the coat of arms of the ridge and test predictions made in the 1950s by Jean Pierre Rothet, another French scientist. “We went zigzag on this famous earthquake line for nine months,” Dr. Le Picon wrote in his 2003 book, Plate Tectonics: The Insider’s History of Modern Theory of the Earth.

The trip confirmed it and he continued to earn his Ph.D. Based on that study, at the University of Strasbourg in 1966.

“As such, the central ridge has achieved a victory over tectonics, becoming the most important structure in the world due to stroke,” he wrote.

But this was in the early 1960s, and he ran “in what we call “fixed mentors,” things weren’t moving.” Like he put it down On the 2009 episode of the podcast “Being With Krista Tippett.”

“The Earth was considered everything to be a static place,” he said. “Things were moving up and down, but never sideways. The continent was always there. The ocean was always there.”

Dr. Le Picon initially defended these concepts, but he realized they were wrong. He returned from the lab one day and told his wife, “My paper’s conclusions are wrong.”

Rather, I felt that he was an American geologist. Harry Hess The assumption in 1962 that the seabed had continued expansion was correct. After all, there was seismic activity along the top of the ridge. Measuring magnetic anomalies along the ridge is important in proofing Dr. Hess’s hypothesis.

Dr. Le Pichon recalled his Eureka moment in an episode of the podcast. “I worked all night on a computer, and one night I put it all together and found out that Hawaii approaches Tokyo at 8 centimeters each year.”

He recalls what he told her: “I discovered how the Earth works. I really know that now.” And I was so excited. ”

His passion for what was happening under the ocean developed quickly. After growing up in what was a French protectorate in Vietnam at the time, he was interrupted by his family during World War II when Japan invaded.

“When I was in the concentration camp, we were on the Pacific coast, and I was wondering what was under the water, and I was on the beach,” Dr. Le Picon said in 2009.

After publishing his groundbreaking paper in 1968, Columbia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology presented the first quantitative global model of plate boundaries and movement, offering him a teaching position. However, he instead led the Institute of Oceanography in Brittany, France, where he began his second career as an underwater ocean explorer, advancing into the depths of small submarines on joint Franco-American expeditions.

In 1973, he said he had taken such a ship 3,000 meters below him while exploring the ridges in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean.

“I had the impression that I was a religious man and had the return to Genesis,” he added. Other sea floor trips in Greece and Japan followed.

Dr. Lupichon, a Roman Catholic who attended Mass every day since childhood, experienced what was called a “great crisis in my life” in 1973 and worked for Mother Teresa in the city of Calcutta, India.

“I was very immersed in my research. I wasn’t looking at anyone else anymore,” he said. “In particular, I didn’t see people suffering and difficulties. It was a very strong crisis.”

His experience in Calcutta changed him by his account, and then he, his wife and his children engaged in charity and charity in the French Lach community for people with intellectual disabilities. They lived there for nearly 30 years. He and his family then find a similar community and help them live there.

Xavier Thaddée Le Pichon was born on June 18, 1937 in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, France, to Jean Louis Le Pichon and Helene Pauline (Tyl) Le Pichon, rubber plantation managers.

The family moved to France in 1945, with Xavier attending the Institute of Cherbourg Saint Paul and the Lyce Sainte Geneviève in Versailles. In 1960 he received his Bachelor of Engineering from the Institut de Physique Du Globe He received a Fulbright Fellowship in Strasbourg to study at Columbia University’s Lamont Daughertier Observatory.

His original works will be carried out over the next decade, and in 1973 he wrote with Jean Bonnin and Jean Franciteau.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Le Picheon taught at the Sorbonne and Ecole Normal Superfoil. He became a professor at the French Collège de France in 1986 and remained there until his retirement in 2008. Besides Balzan, he won many awards and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

He was survived by his wife Bridget Suzanne (Barselmee) le Pichon, a pianist. His children, Jean Baptist, Marie, Emmanuel, Raffaère, Jean Marie and Pierre Guien. 14 grandchildren; 5 great grandchildren.

In lectures and interviews, Dr. Le Picon linked his discoveries to his Catholic faith as a scientist and the prayer work it stimulated. The bridge between them was his concept of “vulnerability,” and he said, “is the essence of men and women, at the heart of humanity.”

The earth is also vulnerable. “I have a very close relationship with the Earth, so I think a little like a mother,” he said in 2009.

Sheila McNeill and Daphne Angles Contributed research.

Source: www.nytimes.com

New modeling studies suggest Titan can only sustain minimal biomass concentrations

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A team of biologists from the US, Canada, UK, and France have developed a scenario for life on Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon.

Rendering of the artist on the surface of Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn. Image credits: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org/cc by-sa 3.0.

“Our research focuses on what makes Titan unique when compared to other ice moons and its rich organic content,” said Dr. Antonin Affelder, a researcher at the University of Arizona.

Using bioenergy modeling, Dr. Affholder and colleagues discovered that Titan’s underground ocean, estimated at around 483 km (300 miles), could support life forms that consume organic materials.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about scenarios that could create organisms on Titan based on lunar organic chemistry, but previous estimates suffer from an overly simplified approach,” Dr. Affholder said.

“Because Titan has such abundant organic matter, there was a sense that there was no shortage of food sources that could sustain life.”

“Not all of these organic molecules constitute a food source, and the ocean is really big; there is a limited exchange between the ocean and the surface, and all of those organic matter; so I argue for a more subtle approach.”

At the heart of the study is a fundamental approach that sought to come up with a plausible scenario for Titan’s life, which envisioned one of the simplest and most prominent fermentations of all biological metabolic processes.

Fermentation familiar to earthlings, used in breadmaking, beer brewing, and less desirable – sourdough fermentation, accustomed to its use in the spoilage of forgotten leftovers, requires only organic molecules but no oxidants like oxygen.

“Fermentation probably evolved early in the history of Earth’s life, and there’s no need to open the door to unknown or speculative mechanisms that may or may not have happened on Titan,” Dr. Affholder said.

“Life on Earth may have first appeared to eat organic molecules left behind from the formation of the Earth.”

“I asked if there could be similar microorganisms on Titan. If so, could Titan’s underground seas supply the biosphere from a seemingly vast inventory of abiotic organic molecules synthesized in Titan’s atmosphere, accumulate on its surface, and be present in its core?”

The researchers have focused specifically on glycine, the simplest organic molecule of all known amino acids.

“We know that glycine was relatively abundant in all kinds of primitive matter in the solar system,” Dr. Affholder said.

“When you look at clouds of particles and gases where stars and planets form, like asteroids, comets, our solar system, we find glycine or its precursors in almost every place.”

However, computer simulations reveal that only a small portion of Titan’s organic materials may be suitable for microbial consumption.

The microorganisms consumed by Titan’s ocean glycine rely on a stable supply of amino acids from the surface through thick, ice-like shells.

Previous work by the same team showed that meteors that shock Titan’s ice could leave behind a “melt pool” of liquid water.

“Our new research shows that this supply may be sufficient to maintain very few microorganisms, which are up to a few kilograms of physical fitness.”

“A small biosphere like this is an average of less than one cell per liter in Titan’s vast oceans.”

For your future mission to Titan, the possibility of finding life might be like searching for needles in a haystack if it’s actually there.

“We conclude that Titan’s unique, rich organic inventory may actually not be available to play a role in lunar habitat at an intuitive level of thinking,” Dr. Affholder said.

paper It was published in Journal of Planetary Science.

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Antonin abholder et al. 2025. Survival rate of glycine fermentation in the underground oceans of Titan. planet. SCI. j 6, 86; doi:10.3847/psj/adbc66

Source: www.sci.news

NASA reduces funding by $420 million for climate science, monthly modeling, and other projects

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NASA’s funding cuts have already impacted US research and education programs

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NASA has cancelled contracts and grants worth up to $420 million, following guidance from the Trump administration’s government efficiency (DOGE). The reductions will impact research projects and education programs in the United States, but NASA says it’s perfect for checking exactly which organizations are affected.

After Doge, an independent task force led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, NASA confirmed the amount but refused to specify which programs were cancelled. Casey Drier The Planetary Association, a California-based nonprofit organization, list of a program that has recently lost funds using the agency’s public grant database. NASA has since deleted the database and did not respond to questions about the accuracy of the list.

Much of the cuts on Dreyer’s list coincides with President Donald Trump’s skepticism about climate science and his administration’s active targets regarding his interpretation of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) program.

Climate-related cancellations include a Massachusetts Institute of Technology project that uses satellite sensors to map the impacts of extreme heat, air pollution and flooding. Another target was a University of Oklahoma study to develop digital twin simulations that predict the impact of flooding on tribal lands.

However, it is unclear why NASA has ended support for other research, such as using bioengineering cells to investigate how spaceflight affects the human body and modelling how lunar dust can contaminate future lunar missions.

NASA spokesman Bethany Stevens said New Scientist The agency is “to work with the Ministry of Government Efficiency initiative to optimize the workforce and resources.” Doge urged agencies across the US government to cut funding or shut down altogether.

But it says that ongoing grants and contract cancellations will fly in the face of a “strict” review process that selected them in the first place as “the most scientifically appropriate proposal.” Michael Batario At Yale University. “Politics cannot and should not define what is scientifically worth studying at the level of individual grants,” says Batario, who is studying the atmosphere of Mars and Titan in preparation for future missions.

“DEI related cuts get me the most out of the way.” Bruce Jacoski He was the lead scientist at NASA’s Maven Mission to Mars at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “These grants are about reaching out to underrepresented groups and making people accessible to training and education. None of them appears to promote people who are less qualified than more qualified.”

For example, NASA cut funding for a conference hosted by the National Association of Black Physicists, a longtime nonprofit that promotes the professional well-being of African-American physicists and physics students. “We were told that the reason for cancelling the contract is to comply with the president’s executive order regarding the DEI,” he said. Stephen Robersonpresident of the National Association of Black Physics. “We would like to appeal this decision and explain further why an annual conference, in which people of all races and academic levels present scientific research, is considered a DEI.”

New Scientist They reached out to researchers and organizations that they thought were affected, but few responded to the National Association of Black Physicists. The San Diego Aerospace Museum, featured on Drayer’s list, said NASA’s funding for educational events appears to be still intact, despite the NASA database indicating changes to the grant’s end date. NASA did not respond to requests to verify the status of this fund.

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Source: www.newscientist.com