Above is a close-up view of " Block Island,” the odd-shaped, dark rock, which may be a meteorite. The rock was imaged with the navigation camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on sol 1959 (July 28, 2009). Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe NASA team spotted the rock, which measures about 0.6 meters across, on July 18 in the opposite direction from which the rover was driving. Currently Opportunity has been directed to approach the rock for further analysis with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to get composition measurements and to confirm if indeed it is a meteorite.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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