Nature: The European Space Agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity ( SMOS) spacecraft has released its first map of Earth’s soil moisture. Launched in November 2009, SMOS derives soil moisture by measuring and analyzing the microwave spectrum emitted by the ground. In the map shown below, blue connotes dry soil; red connotes wet soil. The map was taken on 21 June, when the US midwest was unusually wet and the UK southeast was unusually dry.
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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