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Imagine astronauts living on Mars and producing some of the materials they need directly from Martian soil and rocks. Instead of carrying every essential chemical from Earth, future missions could use local resources to manufacture oxygen and other important materials. A new study by Zhu and his team brings this idea closer to reality with an innovative robotic artificial-intelligence (AI) chemist. The researchers have developed a fully automated system that can study Martian materials, create chemical catalysts and identify the best catalyst for producing oxygen. Remarkably, the entire process can be completed without direct human intervention. Why Making Oxygen on Mars Matters Oxygen is one of the most important resources for human exploration beyond Earth. Astronauts need it to breathe, but oxygen can also be used in other technologies, including systems designed to produce rocket propellant. Transporting large quantities of oxygen from Earth to Mars would be extremely difficult and...

A new generation of earthquake-protection technology is taking inspiration from an unexpected source: the way humans and animals move . Researchers led by Saeedeh Qaderi have developed and experimentally tested a two-layer sliding–stretching seismic isolator that could significantly expand the use of low-cost seismic isolation in multistory buildings. Called the two-layer sliding–stretching isolator (SSI2) , the device is designed to allow large sideways movements during an earthquake while helping a building return toward its original position afterward. Most importantly, the two-layer design can double the lateral displacement capacity without increasing the device's footprint . Why Earthquake Isolation Matters During a major earthquake, the ground can move rapidly in different directions. A building constructed directly on its foundation must absorb much of this movement through its structural components. Seismic isolation takes a different approach. Instead of forcing the enti...

Astronomers may have found one of the clearest examples yet of a strange type of cosmic object that appears to contain gas and dark matter—but almost no stars. The object, known as Cloud-9 , has been studied for several years because it looks different from an ordinary galaxy. Located near the spiral galaxy M94, about 15 million light-years from Earth , Cloud-9 contains a huge amount of hydrogen gas but has shown no obvious evidence of stars. Now, new ultra-deep observations have taken the mystery a step further. Researchers searched the object with one of the world's largest optical telescopes and found no detectable starlight across its central region . The findings, described in a paper posted to the arXiv preprint server on August 21, could make Cloud-9 one of the strongest candidates yet for a starless or "dark" galaxy . A Galaxy Without Stars? When we think about a galaxy, we usually imagine billions of stars surrounded by gas, dust and dark matter. But cosmological...

Imagine sending a robot into a dangerous environment where falling, crashing, or hitting rocks is almost guaranteed. Instead of building it like a rigid machine that can be seriously damaged by impact, what if the robot could simply deform, absorb the shock, recover its shape, and continue moving? Researchers led by William R. Johnson III are working toward this idea with Tribar , a three-bar tensegrity robot designed to combine flexibility, strength, resilience, and autonomy. Inspired by an unusual concept from art and architecture, the robot can move across rough terrain, climb steep slopes, change its shape, follow planned paths, and survive a fall of at least 5.7 meters . The work could help shape a new generation of robots designed to explore environments that are too dangerous, remote, or unpredictable for conventional machines. A Robot Built Like a Tension Network The secret behind Tribar is tensegrity , a design principle based on balancing rigid structures with flexible tensi...

Imagine a material that is incredibly lightweight, can be designed into almost any three-dimensional shape, and can stretch to more than four times its original length without permanently losing its shape. Researchers Jiang and Wang have developed a new class of mechanical metamaterials that brings these unusual properties together in a single material. The new metamaterials combine highly complex 3D structures with an extraordinary level of reversible stretchability. The researchers achieved strains of more than 414% , roughly four times greater than previous materials with similarly complex 3D architectures. This combination could eventually lead to lighter and more flexible robots, advanced wearable electronics, rehabilitation devices, highly efficient shock absorbers and other technologies that need materials capable of handling extreme deformation. Why These Materials Matter Traditional engineering materials usually involve a compromise between strength, weight, flexibility and...

Scientists have long searched for a particle called the axion , which could help solve one of the biggest mysteries in particle physics. The axion was originally proposed to explain why the strong nuclear force appears to follow an extremely precise symmetry between matter and antimatter. But there is a major problem. The same quantum effects of gravity that are expected to exist throughout the universe may also destroy the symmetry that makes the axion solution work. Now, researchers Takeshita and Yoshioka have studied a possible solution using an unusual combination of wormholes and a modified theory of gravity called Metric-Affine Gravity . Their work suggests that extra properties of spacetime could make axionic wormholes much weaker sources of symmetry breaking. If this idea works, it could help protect the axion from dangerous quantum-gravity effects. Why Is the Axion Important? The axion was proposed to solve a famous problem called the strong CP problem . The strong nuclear fo...

A new type of electric propulsion system has successfully fired in orbit, potentially opening the door to cheaper, simpler and more scalable propulsion for the growing satellite industry. Muon Space has announced the first successful in-space firing of a zinc-fueled Hall-effect thruster , marking a major milestone for electric propulsion technology. The company’s Starlight thruster used solid zinc as its propellant and successfully completed its maiden orbital firing aboard SERT-III, a spacecraft built specifically to test the technology. The historic test took place on July 1, 2026 , and the thruster worked successfully on its very first attempt. According to Muon Space, telemetry collected during the firing closely matched predictions from ground testing, while orbital tracking confirmed that the spacecraft experienced measurable thrust. The demonstration could be especially important for the rapidly expanding satellite-constellation industry, where companies are looking for propuls...