The discovery of more than 15,000 kilometres of ancient riverbeds on Mars suggests that the Red Planet may once have been much wetter than previously thought. Researchers looked at fluvial sinuous ridges, also known as inverted channels, across Noachis Terra – a region in Mars' southern highlands. These are believed to have formed when sediment deposited by rivers hardened and was later exposed as the surrounding material eroded. Similar ridges have been found across a range of terrains on Mars. Their presence suggests that flowing water was once widespread in this region of Mars, with precipitation being the most likely source of this water. The new research, led by Adam Losekoot – a PhD student at the Open University, funded by the UK Space Agency – is being presented today at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham.

How molten carbon crystallizes into either graphite or diamond is relevant to planetary science, materials manufacturing and nuclear fusion research. A new study uses computer simulations to study how molten carbon crystallizes into either graphite or diamond at temperatures and pressures similar to Earth’s interior, challenging the conventional understanding of diamond formation.

The future of sustained space habitation depends on our ability to grow fresh food away from Earth. The revolutionary new collaborative Moon-Rice project is using cutting-edge experimental biology to create an ideal future food crop that can be grown in future deep-space outposts, as well as in extreme environments back on Earth.

If we're to land humans on Mars in the coming decades, we'll have to know what challenges await them when they get there. Enter M-MATISSE, a potential precursor to a crewed mission to the Red Planet which could use UK instrumentation being promoted at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham to revolutionise our understanding of space weather on Mars. It would involve sending two robot orbiters to the fourth planet from the Sun to unravel the complex workings of the Martian magnetosphere (the region around a planet dominated by its magnetic field), ionosphere (a layer of ionized gas in the upper atmosphere) and thermosphere (where Mars loses its atmospheric gases to space), as well as the planet's lower atmosphere and radiation build-up.

In a paper published in National Science Review, a team of researchers utilized an astronomical telescope equipped with a quantum-limited superconducting mixer as the receiver. The experiment successfully demonstrated real-time high-definition video wireless transmission at 500 GHz over a record distance of 1.2 km at a dry site situated 4445 meters above sea level. This experiment offers valuable insights for the future development of satellite and airborne-to-ground communication technologies and their applications.