Researchers from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Penn State recreated Mars like conditions in the laboratory to test that idea. They found that pieces of amino acids from E. coli bacteria, if trapped in Martian permafrost or ice caps, could survive more than 50 million years even under constant cosmic radiation. The findings, published in Astrobiology, suggest that missions searching for life on Mars should prioritize pure ice or ice rich permafrost instead of focusing mainly on rocks, clay, or soil.

“Fifty million years is far greater than the expected age for some current surface ice deposits on Mars, which are often less than two million years old, meaning any organic life present within the ice would be preserved,” said co author Christopher House, professor of geosciences, affiliate of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Earth and Environment Systems Institute, and director of the Penn State Consortium for Planetary and Exoplanetary Science and Technology. “That means if there are bacteria near the surface of Mars, future missions can find it.”

Simulating Mars and Cosmic Radiation in the Lab

The study was led by Alexander Pavlov, a space scientist at NASA Goddard who completed a doctorate in geosciences at Penn State in 2001. The team sealed E. coli bacteria inside test tubes filled with pure water ice. Other samples were combined with water and materials commonly found in Martian sediment, including silicate based rocks and clay.

The frozen samples were placed in a gamma radiation chamber at Penn State’s Radiation Science and Engineering Center. The chamber was cooled to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit to match temperatures in icy regions of Mars. The bacteria were then exposed to radiation equivalent to 20 million years of cosmic ray bombardment on the Martian surface. Afterward, the samples were vacuum sealed and shipped back to NASA Goddard under cold conditions for amino acid testing. Researchers then modeled an additional 30 years of radiation exposure, bringing the total to 50 million years.

Pure Ice Protects Organic Molecules

The results were striking. In pure water ice, more than 10 percent of the amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, survived the full 50 million year simulation. By contrast, samples mixed with Mars like sediment broke down 10 times faster and did not survive.

A 2022 study by the same team had shown that amino acids preserved in a mixture of 10% water ice and 90% Martian soil were destroyed more quickly than samples containing only sediment.

“Based on the 2022 study findings, it was thought that organic material in ice or water alone would be destroyed even more rapidly than the 10% water mixture,” Pavlov said. “So, it was surprising to find that the organic materials placed in water ice alone are destroyed at a much slower rate than the samples containing water and soil.”

Researchers think the faster breakdown in mixed samples may happen because a thin film forms where ice touches minerals. That layer could allow radiation to move more freely and damage amino acids.

“While in solid ice, harmful particles created by radiation get frozen in place and may not be able to reach organic compounds,” Pavlov said. “These results suggest that pure ice or ice-dominated regions are an ideal place to look for recent biological material on Mars.”

Implications for Europa and Enceladus

The team also tested organic material at temperatures similar to those on Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn. At those even colder temperatures, deterioration slowed down further.

Pavlov said the findings are encouraging for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which will study Europa’s ice shell and subsurface ocean. Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons. Europa Clipper launched in 2024 and is traveling 1.8 billion miles to reach Jupiter in 2030. The spacecraft will perform 49 close flybys to determine whether environments beneath the surface could support life.

Drilling Into Martian Ice

When it comes to Mars, accessing buried ice will require the right tools. The 2008 NASA Mars Phoenix mission was the first to dig down and photograph ice in the Martian equivalent of the Arctic Circle.

“There is a lot of ice on Mars, but most of it is just below the surface,” House said. “Future missions need a large enough drill or a powerful scoop to access it, similar to the design and capabilities of Phoenix.”

In addition to House and Pavlov, the research team included Zhidan Zhang, a retired lab technologist in the Penn State Department of Geosciences, along with Hannah McLain, Kendra Farnsworth, Daniel Glavin, Jamie Elsila, and Jason Dworkin of NASA Goddard.

The work was funded by NASA’s Planetary Science Division Internal Scientist Funding Program through the Fundamental Laboratory Research work package at Goddard Space Flight Center.

“Without a magnetic field, the galaxy would collapse in on itself due to gravity,” says Brown, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary.

“We need to know what the magnetic field of the galaxy looks like now, so we can create accurate models that predict how it will evolve.”

New Milky Way Magnetic Field Data and Models

This month, Brown and her colleagues published two new studies in The Astrophysical Journal and The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. Together, the papers introduce a complete dataset that astronomers around the world can use, along with a new model designed to improve understanding of how the Milky Way’s magnetic field developed over time.

To gather the data, the team relied on a new radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in B.C., a National Research Council Canada facility. The instrument allowed them to scan the northern sky at multiple radio frequencies, offering a detailed look at the structure of the galaxy’s magnetic field.

“The broad coverage really lets you get at the details about the magnetic field structure,” says Dr. Anna Ordog, PhD, lead author of the first study.

The result is a high quality, wide ranging dataset collected as part of the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey (GMIMS), an international effort to chart the Milky Way’s magnetic field.

Tracking Faraday Rotation Across the Galaxy

The researchers measured a phenomenon known as Faraday rotation to trace the magnetic field. This effect occurs when radio waves pass through regions filled with electrons and magnetic fields, causing the waves to shift.

“You can think of it like refraction. A straw in a glass of water looks bent because of how light interacts with matter,” says Rebecca Booth, a PhD candidate working with Brown and lead author of the second study. “Faraday rotation is a similar concept, but it’s electrons and magnetic fields in space interacting with radio waves.”

By analyzing these subtle changes in radio signals, the team was able to map how the magnetic field is arranged across vast stretches of the galaxy.

A Diagonal Magnetic Reversal in the Sagittarius Arm

In the second study, Booth focused on a striking feature within the Milky Way known as the Sagittarius Arm, where the magnetic field runs in the opposite direction compared to the rest of the galaxy.

“If you could look at the galaxy from above, the overall magnetic field is going clockwise,” says Brown. “But, in the Sagittarius Arm, it’s going counterclockwise. We didn’t understand how the transition occurred. Then one day, Anna brought in some data, and I went, ‘O.M.G., the reversal’s diagonal!'”

Building on Ordog’s findings, Booth used the newly assembled dataset to construct a three dimensional model explaining this reversal.

“My work presents a new three-dimensional model for the magnetic field reversal. From Earth, this would appear as the diagonal that we observe in the data,” Booth explains.

The research is not designed to forecast earthquakes. Instead, it outlines a possible physical mechanism showing how shifts in ionospheric charge levels — triggered by intense solar activity such as solar flares — might interact with already weakened areas of the crust and influence how fractures develop.

How the Ionosphere Could Affect Fault Zones

In this model, cracked regions of the crust are thought to contain water at extremely high temperatures and pressures, possibly in a supercritical state. Electrically, these fractured zones may act like capacitors. They are coupled both to the Earth’s surface and to the lower ionosphere, creating a vast electrostatic system that links the ground to the upper atmosphere.

When solar activity surges, electron density in the ionosphere can rise significantly. This can produce a negatively charged layer in the lower ionosphere. Through capacitive coupling, that charge may generate intense electric fields inside microscopic voids within fractured rock. The resulting electrostatic pressure could approach levels similar to tidal or gravitational stresses that are already known to influence fault stability.

According to the team’s calculations, ionospheric disturbances tied to major solar flares — involving increases in total electron content of several tens of TEC units — might create electrostatic pressures of several megapascals within these crustal voids.

Ionospheric Anomalies Observed Before Major Quakes

Unusual ionospheric behavior has often been detected before powerful earthquakes. Observations have included spikes in electron density, drops in ionospheric altitude, and slower propagation of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances. Traditionally, scientists have interpreted these changes as effects caused by stress building up inside the crust.

This new framework offers an additional perspective. It suggests a two way interaction in which processes inside the Earth can influence the ionosphere, while ionospheric disturbances may also send feedback forces back down into the crust. The model connects space weather and seismic activity without claiming that solar activity directly causes earthquakes.

Solar Activity and the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

The researchers point to recent major earthquakes in Japan, including the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, as events that occurred shortly after periods of intense solar flare activity. They stress that this timing does not prove cause and effect. However, it aligns with the idea that ionospheric disturbances could act as a contributing factor when faults are already close to failure.

Rethinking Earthquakes Beyond Internal Forces

By drawing on plasma physics, atmospheric science, and geophysics, this approach expands the traditional view that earthquakes are driven solely by forces inside the planet. The findings indicate that tracking ionospheric conditions alongside underground measurements could improve understanding of how earthquakes begin and how seismic risk is assessed.

Future work will combine high-resolution GNSS-based ionospheric tomography with detailed space weather data. The goal is to determine when and how ionospheric disturbances might exert meaningful electrostatic effects on the Earth’s crust.

The dolphin-sized creature, named Xiphodracon goldencapensis and nicknamed the “Sword Dragon of Dorset,” is the only known specimen of its species. Its discovery helps close a major gap in the fossil record and offers new insight into ichthyosaur evolution.

For more than two centuries, the Jurassic Coast has yielded thousands of ichthyosaur fossils, ever since pioneering fossil hunter Mary Anning began making historic finds there. However, this marks the first new genus of Early Jurassic ichthyosaur described from the region in more than 100 years.

Exceptionally Preserved 190-Million-Year-Old Fossil

The fossil was found near Golden Cap in 2001 by Dorset collector Chris Moore. Preserved in nearly perfect three-dimensional detail, the skeleton includes a skull with a huge eye socket and an elongated, sword-like snout. Researchers estimate the animal measured about three meters long and likely fed on fish and squid. There may even be traces of its final meal preserved within the remains. It is thought to be the most complete prehistoric reptile ever discovered from the Pliensbachian period.

The research was carried out by an international team of paleontologists led by ichthyosaur specialist Dr. Dean Lomax, an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester and an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. Their findings appear in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

Dr. Lomax said: “I remember seeing the skeleton for the first time in 2016. Back then, I knew it was unusual, but I did not expect it to play such a pivotal role in helping to fill a gap in our understanding of a complex faunal turnover during the Pliensbachian. This time is pretty crucial for ichthyosaurs as several families went extinct and new families emerged, yet Xiphodracon is something you might call a “missing piece of the ichthyosaur puzzle.” It is more closely related to species in the later Early Jurassic (in the Toarcian), and its discovery helps pinpoint when the faunal turnover occurred, being much earlier than expected.”

Solving an Evolutionary Mystery

After it was collected in 2001, the skeleton was acquired by the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, where it joined one of the world’s largest ichthyosaur collections. Despite its importance, it had remained unstudied until now.

Ichthyosaurs from the Pliensbachian (193-184 million years ago) are extremely rare, making this specimen especially valuable. Scientists have long known that ichthyosaur species before and after this time period were very different from one another, even though they occupied similar ecological roles.

Co-author Professor Judy Massare of the State University of NY at Brockport explained: “Thousands of complete or nearly complete ichthyosaur skeletons are known from strata before and after the Pliensbachian. The two faunas are quite distinct, with no species in common, even though the overall ecology is similar. Clearly, a major change in species diversity occurred sometime in the Pliensbachian. Xiphodracon helps to determine when the change occurred, but we still don’t know why.”

Evidence of Injury and a Violent End

The skeleton also provides clues about the challenges of life in Jurassic seas. According to co-author Dr. Erin Maxwell of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, several limb bones and teeth show abnormalities that suggest the animal suffered serious injury or illness while it was alive. The skull also appears to bear bite marks from a much larger predator — likely another large ichthyosaur — which may have caused its death.

Dr. Maxwell said: “This skeleton provides critical information for understanding ichthyosaur evolution, but also contributes to our understanding of what life must have been like in the Jurassic seas of Britain. The limb bones and teeth are malformed in such a way that points to serious injury or disease while the animal was still alive, and the skull appears to have been bitten by a large predator — likely another much larger species of ichthyosaur — giving us a cause of death for this individual. Life in the Mesozoic oceans was a dangerous prospect.”

Unique Features and a Fitting Name

Researchers identified several anatomical traits in Xiphodracon that have never been documented in any other ichthyosaur. One of the most unusual features is a distinctive bone near the nostril (called a lacrimal) that includes prong-like projections.

Dr. Lomax, author of the recent book “The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs,” said: “One of the coolest things about identifying a new species is that you get to name it! We opted for Xiphodracon because of the long, sword-like snout (xipho from Greek xiphos for sword) and dracon (Greek and Latin for dragon) in reference to ichthyosaurs being referred to as “sea dragons” for over 200 years.”

The study was published in the international journal Papers in Palaeontology. The fossil is expected to go on public display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.

About 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Portugal lies one of the most striking examples. Known as the King’s Trough Complex, this vast underwater structure stretches roughly 500 kilometers and includes a series of parallel trenches and deep basins. At its eastern edge is Peake Deep, one of the deepest locations in the Atlantic Ocean.

What created such an immense formation? A team of international researchers led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has uncovered new clues. Their findings appear in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-Cubed), published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

“Researchers have long suspected that tectonic processes — that is, movements of the Earth’s crust — played a central role in the formation of the King’s Trough,” says lead author Dr. Antje Dürkefälden, marine geologist at GEOMAR. “Our results now explain for the first time why this remarkable structure developed precisely at this location.”

Seafloor Rifting Between Europe and Africa

The new research indicates that between about 37 and 24 million years ago, a plate boundary separating Europe and Africa temporarily passed through this part of the North Atlantic. As the tectonic plates shifted, the crust in this region was pulled apart and fractured, opening progressively from east to west, much like a zipper being undone.

An important piece of the puzzle lies even deeper. Before the plate boundary moved into the area, the oceanic crust there had already become unusually thick and heated. This condition resulted from hot material rising upward from Earth’s mantle. Known as a mantle plume, this steady column of molten rock originates far below the surface. The team believes this was an early offshoot of what is now the Azores mantle plume.

“This thickened, heated crust may have made the region mechanically weaker, so that the plate boundary preferentially shifted here,” explains co-author PD Dr. Jörg Geldmacher, marine geologist at GEOMAR. “When the plate boundary later moved further south towards the modern Azores, the formation of the King’s Trough also came to a halt.”

How Mantle Activity Shapes the Atlantic

The King’s Trough offers a clear example of how deep mantle processes and shifting tectonic plates interact. Activity far below the surface can prepare the crust for later deformation, influencing where major fractures and rifts eventually develop.

These findings also shed light on the broader geodynamic history of the Atlantic Ocean. Similar processes may still be underway today. Near the Azores, a comparable trench system called the Terceira Rift is forming in another region where the oceanic crust is unusually thick.

Mapping the King’s Trough

The conclusions are based on data collected during research expedition M168 aboard the research vessel METEOR in 2020, led by Antje Dürkefälden. The scientists used high resolution sonar to produce a detailed map of the seafloor. They then retrieved volcanic rock samples from several parts of the trench system using a chain bag dredge.

Back in the lab, the team examined the chemical makeup of the rocks. Selected samples were dated at the University of Madison (Wisconsin, USA). Additional bathymetric data came from the Portuguese research centre Estrutura de Missão para a Extensão da Plataforma Continental (EMEPC). Researchers from Kiel University and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg also contributed to the study.