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By USH
Antarctica is shrouded in mystery, holding secrets from the past and serving as the site of ongoing covert operations. It's no surprise that numerous restricted zones exist to conceal the truth about what’s really happening there. The intrigue extends beyond the surface, hidden dangers lurk beneath the ice, particularly in the depths of Lake Vostok.
This hidden subglacial lake, sealed off from the world for 15 million years, holds secrets beyond imagination. Preserved in isolation, its ecosystem is unlike anything else on Earth.
When a Russian team drilled into Lake Vostok, they uncovered more than just ancient water. But something went wrong. Two scientists died under mysterious circumstances, and official reports contradict witness accounts. Military operations, classified research, and blurred satellite images suggest something is being hidden.
What are they trying to hide at the bottom of the world? Rumors speak of monstrous, spider-like entities, shape-shifting predators, and colossal, whale-like humanoids known as the "Ningen" a name that means "human" in Japanese.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured these drifting noctilucent, or twilight, clouds in a 16-minute recording on Jan. 17. (This looping clip has been speeded up about 480 times.) The white plumes falling out of the clouds are carbon dioxide ice that would evaporate closer to the Martian surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/SSI While the Martian clouds may look like the kind seen in Earth’s skies, they include frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice.
Red-and-green-tinted clouds drift through the Martian sky in a new set of images captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover using its Mastcam — its main set of “eyes.” Taken over 16 minutes on Jan. 17 (the 4,426th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s mission), the images show the latest observations of what are called noctilucent (Latin for “night shining”), or twilight clouds, tinged with color by scattering light from the setting Sun.
Sometimes these clouds even create a rainbow of colors, producing iridescent, or “mother-of-pearl” clouds. Too faint to be seen in daylight, they’re only visible when the clouds are especially high and evening has fallen.
Martian clouds are made of either water ice or, at higher altitudes and lower temperatures, carbon dioxide ice. (Mars’ atmosphere is more than 95% carbon dioxide.) The latter are the only kind of clouds observed at Mars producing iridescence, and they can be seen near the top of the new images at an altitude of around 37 to 50 miles (60 to 80 kilometers). They’re also visible as white plumes falling through the atmosphere, traveling as low as 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the surface before evaporating because of rising temperatures. Appearing briefly at the bottom of the images are water-ice clouds traveling in the opposite direction roughly 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the rover.
Dawn of Twilight Clouds
Twilight clouds were first seen on Mars by NASA’s Pathfinder mission in 1997; Curiosity didn’t spot them until 2019, when it acquired its first-ever images of iridescence in the clouds. This is the fourth Mars year the rover has observed the phenomenon, which occurs during early fall in the southern hemisphere.
Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, led a paper summarizing Curiosity’s first two seasons of twilight cloud observations, which published late last year in Geophysical Research Letters. “I’ll always remember the first time I saw those iridescent clouds and was sure at first it was some color artifact,” he said. “Now it’s become so predictable that we can plan our shots in advance; the clouds show up at exactly the same time of year.”
Each sighting is an opportunity to learn more about the particle size and growth rate in Martian clouds. That, in turn, provides more information about the planet’s atmosphere.
Cloud Mystery
One big mystery is why twilight clouds made of carbon dioxide ice haven’t been spotted in other locations on Mars. Curiosity, which landed in 2012, is on Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, just south of the Martian equator. Pathfinder landed in Ares Vallis, north of the equator. NASA’s Perseverance rover, located in the northern hemisphere’s Jezero Crater, hasn’t seen any carbon dioxide ice twilight clouds since its 2021 landing. Lemmon and others suspect that certain regions of Mars may be predisposed to forming them.
A possible source of the clouds could be gravity waves, he said, which can cool the atmosphere: “Carbon dioxide was not expected to be condensing into ice here, so something is cooling it to the point that it could happen. But Martian gravity waves are not fully understood and we’re not entirely sure what is causing twilight clouds to form in one place but not another.”
Mastcam’s Partial View
The new twilight clouds appear framed in a partially open circle. That’s because they were taken using one of Mastcam’s two color cameras: the left 34 mm focal length Mastcam, which has a filter wheel that is stuck between positions. Curiosity’s team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California remains able to use both this camera and the higher-resolution right 100 mm focal length camera for color imaging.
The rover recently wrapped an investigation of a place called Gediz Vallis channel and is on its way to a new location that includes boxwork — fractures formed by groundwater that look like giant spiderwebs when viewed from space.
More recently, Curiosity visited an impact crater nicknamed “Rustic Canyon,” capturing it in images and studying the composition of rocks around it. The crater, 67 feet (20 meters) in diameter, is shallow and has lost much of its rim to erosion, indicating that it likely formed many millions of years ago. One reason Curiosity’s science team studies craters is because the cratering process can unearth long-buried materials that may have better preserved organic molecules than rocks exposed to radiation at the surface. These molecules provide a window into the ancient Martian environment and how it could have supported microbial life billions of years ago, if any ever formed on the Red Planet.
More About Curiosity
Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.
For more about Curiosity, visit:
science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity
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Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
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karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 11, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
NASA CubeSat Finds New Radiation Belts After May 2024 Solar Storm
Key Points
The May 2024 solar storm created two new temporary belts of high-energy particles surrounding Earth. Such belts have been seen before, but the new ones were particularly long lasting, especially the new proton belt. The findings are particularly important for spacecraft launching into geostationary orbits, which can be damaged as they traverse the dangerous belts. The largest solar storm in two decades hit Earth in May 2024. For several days, wave after wave of high-energy charged particles from the Sun rocked the planet. Brilliant auroras engulfed the skies, and some GPS communications were temporarily disrupted.
With the help of a serendipitously resurrected small NASA satellite, scientists have discovered that this storm also created two new temporary belts of energetic particles encircling Earth. The findings are important to understanding how future solar storms could impact our technology.
The new belts formed between two others that permanently surround Earth called the Van Allen Belts. Shaped like concentric rings high above Earth’s equator, these permanent belts are composed of a mix of high-energy electrons and protons that are trapped in place by Earth’s magnetic field. The energetic particles in these belts can damage spacecraft and imperil astronauts who pass through them, so understanding their dynamics is key to safe spaceflight.
The May 2024 solar storm created two extra radiation belts, sandwiched between the two permanent Van Allen Belts. One of the new belts, shown in purple, included a population of protons, giving it a unique composition that hadn’t been seen before. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Kristen Perrin The discovery of the new belts, made possible by NASA’s Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite and published Feb. 6, 2025, in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, is particularly important for protecting spacecraft launching into geostationary orbits, since they travel through the Van Allen Belts several times before reaching their final orbit.
New Belts Amaze Scientists
Temporary belts have been detected in the aftermath of large solar storms before. But while previous belts have been composed mostly of electrons, the innermost of the two new belts also included energetic protons. This unique composition is likely due to the strength and composition of the solar storm.
“When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, ‘Wow, this is something really new,’” said the paper’s lead author Xinlin Li, a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. “This is really stunning.”
The new belts also seem to have lasted much longer than previous belts. Whereas previous temporary belts lasted around four weeks, the new belt composed primary of electrons lasted more than three months. The other belt, that also includes protons, has lasted much longer than the electron belt because it is in a more stable region and is less prone to the physical processes that can knock the particles out of orbit. It is likely still there today.
“These are really high-energy electrons and protons that have found their way into Earth’s inner magnetic environment,” said David Sibeck, former mission scientist for NASA’s Van Allen Probes and research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved with the new study. “Some might stay in this place for a very long time.”
How long such belts stick around depends on passing solar storms. Large storms can provide the energy to knock particles in these belts out of their orbits and send them spiraling off into space or down to Earth. One such storm at the end of June significantly decreased the size of the new electron belt and another in August nearly erased the remainder of that electron belt, though a small population of high-energy electrons endured.
CubeSat Fortuitously Comes Back to Life to Make the Discovery
The new discovery was made by NASA’s CIRBE satellite, a CubeSat about the size of a shoebox that circled the planet’s magnetic poles in a low Earth orbit from April 2023 to October 2024. CIRBE housed an instrument called the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope integrated little experiment-2 (REPTile-2) — a miniaturized and upgraded version of an instrument that flew aboard NASA’s Van Allen Probes, which made the first discovery of a temporary electron belt in 2013.
The CIRBE CubeSat in the laboratory before launch. CIRBE was designed and built by LASP at the University of Colorado Boulder. Xinlin Li/LASP/CU Boulder After a year in space, the CubeSat experienced an anomaly and unexpectedly went quiet on April 15, 2024. The scientists were disappointed to miss the solar storm in May but were able to rely on other spacecraft to provide some preliminary data on the electron belt. Luckily, on June 15, the spacecraft sprang back to life and resumed taking measurements. The data provided high-resolution information that couldn’t be gleaned by any other instrument and allowed the scientists to understand the magnitude of the new belts.
“Once we resumed measurements, we were able to see the new electron belt, which wasn’t visible in the data from other spacecraft,” Li said.
Having the CubeSat in orbit to measure the effect of the solar storm has been bittersweet, Li said. While it provided the opportunity to measure the effects of such a large event, the storm also increased atmospheric drag on the CubeSat, which caused its orbit to decrease prematurely. As a result, the CubeSat deorbited in October 2024. However, the spacecraft’s data makes it all worth it.
“We are very proud that our very small CubeSat made such a discovery,” Li said.
CIRBE was designed and built by LASP at the University of Colorado Boulder and was launched through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). The mission is sponsored by NASA’s Heliophysics Flight Opportunities for Research & Technology (H-FORT) program.
By Mara Johnson-Groh
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Feb 06, 2025 Related Terms
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Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More 35th Anniversary 4 Min Read Hubble Reveals Surprising Spiral Shape of Galaxy Hosting Young Jet
Quasar J0742+2704 Credits:
NASA, ESA, Kristina Nyland (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) The night sky has always played a crucial role in navigation, from early ocean crossings to modern GPS. Besides stars, the United States Navy uses quasars as beacons. Quasars are distant galaxies with supermassive black holes, surrounded by brilliantly hot disks of swirling gas that can blast off jets of material. Following up on the groundbreaking 2020 discovery of newborn jets in a number of quasars, aspiring naval officer Olivia Achenbach of the United States Naval Academy has used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to reveal surprising properties of one of them, quasar J0742+2704.
“The biggest surprise was seeing the distinct spiral shape in the Hubble Space Telescope images. At first I was worried I had made an error,” said Achenbach, who made the discovery during the course of a four-week internship.
Quasar J0742+2704 (center) became the subject of astronomers’ interest after it was discovered to have a newborn jet blasting from the disk around its supermassive black hole in 2020, using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio observatory. This led to follow-up with other observatories in an effort to determine the properties of the galaxy and what may have triggered the jet. While the jet itself cannot be seen in this Hubble Space Telescope infrared-light image, the spiral shape of J0742+2704 is clear, with faint but detectable arms branching above and below the galaxy center. This was a big surprise to the research team, as quasars hosting jets are typically elliptical-shaped, and its suspected that messy mergers with other galaxies are what funnel gas toward the black hole and fuel jets. These mergers would also disrupt any spiral formation a galaxy may have had before mixing its contents with another galaxy. Though its intact spiral shape means it has not experienced a major merger, Hubble does show evidence that its lower arm has been disrupted, possibly by the tidal forces of interaction with another galaxy. This could mean that jets can be triggered by a far less involved, dramatic interaction of galaxies than a full merger. The large galaxy to the lower right of the quasar appears to be a ring galaxy, another sign of interaction. Some ring galaxies form after a small galaxy passes through the center of a larger galaxy, reconfiguring its gas and dust. The brightest parts of this image — foreground stars and the bright center of the quasar — show the characteristic “starry” spikes produced by Hubble (and other telescopes’) interior structure. They are not actual aspects of the cosmic objects. NASA, ESA, Kristina Nyland (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) “We typically see quasars as older galaxies that have grown very massive, along with their central black holes, after going through messy mergers and have come out with an elliptical shape,” said astronomer Kristina Nyland of the Naval Research Laboratory, Achenbach’s adviser on the research.
“It’s extremely rare and exciting to find a quasar-hosting galaxy with spiral arms and a black hole that is more than 400 million times the mass of the Sun — which is pretty big — plus young jets that weren’t detectable 20 years ago,” Nyland said.
The unusual quasar takes its place amid an active debate in the astronomy community over what triggers quasar jets, which can be significant in the evolution of galaxies, as the jets can suppress star formation. Some astronomers suspect that quasar jets are triggered by major galaxy mergers, as the material from two or more galaxies mashes together, and heated gas is funneled toward merged black holes. Spiral galaxy quasars like J0742+2704, however, suggest that there may be other pathways for jet formation.
While J0742+2704 has maintained its spiral shape, the Hubble image does show intriguing signs of its potential interaction with other galaxies. One of its arms shows distortion, possibly a tidal tail.
Hubble captured intriguing hints of interaction, if not full merging, between galaxies including quasar J0742+2704. There is evidence of a distorted tidal tail, or a streamer of gas, that has been pulled out by the gravity of a nearby galaxy. The presence of a ring galaxy also suggests interaction: The distinctive shape of ring galaxies are thought to form when one galaxy passes through another, redistributing its contents into a central core circled by stars and gas. Astronomers will be doing further analysis of Hubble’s detailed spectroscopic data, plus follow-up with other telescopes that can see different types of light, to confirm the distances of the galaxies and how they may be affecting one another. NASA, ESA, Kristina Nyland (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) “Clearly there is something interesting going on. While the quasar has not experienced a major disruptive merger, it may be interacting with another galaxy, which is gravitationally tugging at its spiral arm,” said Nyland.
Another galaxy that appears nearby in the Hubble image (though its location still needs to be spectroscopically confirmed) has a ring structure. This rare shape can occur after a galaxy interaction in which a smaller galaxy punches through the center of a spiral galaxy. “The ring galaxy near the quasar host galaxy could be an intriguing clue as to what is happening in this system. We may be witnessing the aftermath of the interaction that triggered this young quasar jet,” said Nyland.
Both Achenbach and Nyland emphasize that this intriguing discovery is really a new starting point, and there will be additional multi-wavelength analysis of J0742+2704 with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. It’s also a case for keeping our eyes on the skies, said Achenbach.
“If we looked at this galaxy 20 years, or maybe even a decade ago, we would have seen a fairly average quasar and never known it would eventually be home to newborn jets,” said Achenbach. “It goes to show that if you keep searching, you can find something remarkable that you never expected, and it can send you in a whole new direction of discovery.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Leah Ramsay, Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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Last Updated Jan 13, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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