SPACE/COSMOS
An unusual dust storm on Mars reveals how the red planet lost some of its water
Tohoku University
image:
Composite images of Mars taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2024. Thin clouds of water ice, visible in ultraviolet light, give the Red Planet an icy appearance. The frigid north polar ice cap was experiencing the beginning of Martian spring.
view moreCredit: ©NASA, ESA, STScI
The current image of Mars as an arid and hostile desert contrasts sharply with the history revealed by its surface. Channels, minerals altered by water, and other geological traces indicate that the Red Planet was, in its early days, a much wetter and more dynamic world. Reconstructing how this water-rich environment disappeared remains one of the great challenges of planetary science. Although several processes are known that can explain some of this loss, the fate of much of Martian water remains a mystery.
A new study from an international team of researchers published in Communications: Earth & Environment on February 2, 2026, has brought us a significant step closer to solving this puzzle. For the first time, researchers demonstrated that an anomalous, intense, but localized dust storm was able to drive the transport of water to the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere during the Northern Hemisphere summer - a time when this process was previously considered to be irrelevant.
"The findings reveal the impact of this type of storm on the planet's climate evolution and opens a new path for understanding how Mars lost much of its water over time," says Adrián Brines, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) and co-lead author of the study along with Shohei Aoki, a researcher from the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo and the Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University.
While dust storms have long been recognized as important for Mars' water escape, previous discussions have mostly focused on large, planet-wide dust events. In contrast, this study shows that smaller, regional storms can also strongly enhance water transport to high altitudes, where it can be more easily lost to space. Furthermore, previous research has focused on the warm, dynamic summers of the Southern Hemisphere, since it is typically the main period of water loss on Mars.
This study detected an unusual increase in water vapor in the middle atmosphere of Mars during the Northern Hemisphere summer in Martian year 37 (2022-2023 on Earth), caused by an anomalous dust storm. At these altitudes, the amount of water was up to ten times greater than usual, a phenomenon not observed in previous Martian years and not predicted by current climate models.
Shortly afterward, the amount of hydrogen in the exobase - the region where the atmosphere merges with space - increased significantly to 2.5 times that of the previous years during the same season. One of the keys to understanding how much water Mars has lost is measuring how much hydrogen has escaped into space, since this element is readily released when water breaks down in the atmosphere.
"These results add a vital new piece to the incomplete puzzle of how Mars has been losing its water over billions of years, and shows that short but intense episodes can play a relevant role in the climate evolution of the Red Planet," concludes Aoki (University of Tokyo and Tohoku University).
This study is a collaborative, international project combining data across multiple Mars exploration missions such as the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of the ESA's ExoMars mission (2016) and its NOMAD instrument with observations from other active missions in Martian orbit, such as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM).
Daily MRO-MARCI global map images of the initial growth of a rare regional dust storm in northwestern Syrtis Major, observed on August 21, 2023, at Ls = 107.6° (left) and August 22, 2023, at Ls = 108.0° (right), reaching an extent of 1.2 × 10⁶ km².
Credit
©Brines, Aoki et al., 2026, Communications: Earth & Environment
Diagram illustrating the atmospheric response to a localized dust storm in the Northern Hemisphere during the local summer season. High dust concentrations significantly increase the absorption of solar radiation, leading to greater atmospheric warming, especially in the middle atmosphere. Furthermore, the increased atmospheric circulation associated with the dust storm enhances the vertical transport of water vapor from the lower atmosphere, promoting water injection at higher altitudes and increasing hydrogen escape from the exobase.
Credit
©Brines, Aoki et al., 2026, Communications: Earth & Environment.
Journal
Communications Earth & Environment
Article Title
Out-of-season water escape during Mars' northern summer triggered by a strong localized dust storm
Article Publication Date
2-Feb-2026
Invisible particles that control star birth measured for first time
Technion-led team achieves first measurement of cosmic rays deep inside star-forming nebula 400 light-years from Earth
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
An international research team led by scientists from the Technion Faculty of Physics presents a first-of-its-kind measurement of cosmic rays located at the core of the galactic nebula Barnard 68. The measurement was based on observations by the James Webb Space Telescope and will enable researchers to map the properties of cosmic rays in space and shed light on the process of star formation in the galaxy. The findings were published recently in Nature Astronomy, with companion analysis published in the Astrophysical Journal in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University.
What Are Cosmic Rays?
Despite their name, cosmic rays are not related to electromagnetic radiation (light). They are actually particles of matter – protons, electrons, and atomic nuclei – that fill galactic space and travel at speeds close to the speed of light.
Cosmic rays have a decisive impact on the process of star formation. Stars like our Sun are formed through the gravitational collapse of clouds of gas and dust in the galaxy. Thanks to their high energy, cosmic-ray particles can penetrate deep into a nebula and heat its gas, thereby delaying its collapse and the formation of a star. In addition to heating, cosmic-ray-driven ionization plays a key role in nebular chemistry and is involved in the creation of molecules such as water, ammonia, methanol, and more.
Cosmic rays were first discovered more than a century ago in Victor Hess’s famous balloon experiment. Today, measurements from the International Space Station and from the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft allow us to study cosmic rays in the vicinity of the Solar System. However, the question of what the properties of cosmic rays are throughout the galaxy—and particularly inside star-forming nebulae – remains open, and is considered one of the most important unresolved questions in modern astrophysics.
The Discovery
This year, an international team led by Dr. Shmuel Bialy of the Technion achieved a long-sought breakthrough: a direct measurement of cosmic-ray activity inside a galactic nebula. “When cosmic rays penetrate a nebula,” explained Dr. Bialy, “they cause hydrogen molecules to vibrate, emitting infrared radiation at a characteristic frequency of about 100 terahertz. This infrared radiation serves as a unique fingerprint of the interaction between cosmic rays and hydrogen in the nebula.”
The research team designed and conducted an observation using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to measure this radiation from Barnard 68 – a cold, dense nebula (with temperatures around 10-20 Kelvin, barely above absolute zero) 400 light-years from Earth, located in the constellation Ophiuchus. The nebula has a diameter of roughly one-third of a light-year and a mass twice that of the Sun. According to predictions, it will collapse in about 200,000 years, forming a new star.
“The signals detected by the space telescope matched perfectly with the predictions of the theoretical model we developed,” said Amit Chemke, a master’s student in Dr. Bialy’s group and a co-author of the study. “We also examined alternative models, but none fit the observed signals. Our measurement provides unequivocal evidence that we are seeing cosmic rays.”
“These are the first photons ever detected from cosmic-ray–excited H₂,” said David Neufeld, professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins, who was also part of this study. “JWST has opened a completely new window on cosmic-ray astrophysics.”
What’s Next?
"Years ago, when I first proposed this approach, many experts were skeptical that we could detect such faint signals," said Dr. Bialy. "The James Webb Space Telescope's unprecedented capabilities changed everything. NASA has now allocated an additional 50 hours of telescope time to expand our cosmic-ray mapping across different galactic environments. Nebulae may now serve as enormous natural particle detectors – tens of thousands of solar systems in size – opening the door to the first systematic study of how cosmic rays propagate through galaxies and regulate star formation."
The Israeli team’s research was supported by the Technion, the Israel Science Foundation, and the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Direct detection of cosmic-ray-excited H2 in interstellar space
Article Publication Date
3-Feb-2026
James Webb Space Telescope reveals an exceptional richness of organic molecules in one of the most infrared luminous galaxies in the local Universe
University of Oxford
image:
James Webb Space Telescope Near-infrared Camera (JWST NIRCam) false colour image of IRAS07251-0248, made by combining exposures with the 2 mm (Blue), 2.77 mm (Green) and 3.56 mm (Red) wide filters on NIRCam. Data are part of the observations carried out under JWST GO Programme ID 3368 (P.I. L. Armus). Calibrated data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST.
view moreCredit: Data came from Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, Space Telescope Science Institute, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., NASA.
A recent study, led by the Center for Astrobiology (CAB), CSIC-INTA and using modelling techniques developed at the University of Oxford, has uncovered an unprecedented richness of small organic molecules in the deeply obscured nucleus of a nearby galaxy, thanks to observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The work, published in Nature Astronomy, provides new insights into how complex organic molecules and carbon are processed in some of the most extreme environments in the Universe.
The study focuses on IRAS 07251–0248, an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy whose nucleus is hidden behind vast amounts of gas and dust. This material absorbs most of the radiation emitted by the central supermassive black hole, making it extremely difficult to study with conventional telescopes. However, the infrared wavelength range penetrates the dust and provides unique information about these regions, revealing the dominant chemical processes in this extremely dusty nucleus.
State-of-the-art instruments
The team used spectroscopic observations from the JWST space telescope covering the 3–28 micron wavelength range, combining data from the NIRSpec and MIRI instruments. These observations allow the detection of chemical signatures from gas-phase molecules, as well as features from ices and dust grains. Thanks to these data, the researchers were able to characterize the abundance and temperature of numerous chemical species in the nucleus of this buried galaxy.
The observations reveal an extraordinarily rich inventory of small organic molecules, including benzene (C₆H₆), methane (CH₄), acetylene (C₂H₂), diacetylene (C₄H₂), and triacetylene (C₆H₂), and, detected for the first time outside the Milky Way, the methyl radical (CH₃). In addition to gas-phase molecules, a large abundance of solid molecular materials was found, such as carbonaceous grains and water ices.
“We found an unexpected chemical complexity, with abundances far higher than predicted by current theoretical models,” explains lead author Dr Ismael García Bernete formerly of Oxford University and now a researcher at CAB. “This indicates that there must be a continuous source of carbon in these galactic nuclei fuelling this rich chemical network.”
These molecules could play a key role as fundamental building blocks for complex organic chemistry, of interest for processes relevant to life. Co-author Professor Dimitra Rigopoulou (Department of Physics, University of Oxford) adds: “Although small organic molecules are not found in living cells, they could play a vital role in prebiotic chemistry representing an important step towards the formation of amino acids and nucleotides.”
Factories of organic molecules in the Universe
The analysis, involving techniques and theoretical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) models developed by the Oxford group, suggests that the observed chemistry cannot be explained solely by high temperatures or turbulent gas motions. Instead, the results point to cosmic rays, abundant in these extreme nuclei, as fragmenting PAHs and carbon-rich dust grains, releasing small organic molecules into the gas phase.
The study also finds a clear correlation between hydrocarbon abundance and the intensity of cosmic-ray ionization in similar galaxies, supporting this scenario. These results suggest that deeply obscured galactic nuclei could act as factories of organic molecules, playing a key role in the chemical evolution of galaxies.
This work opens new avenues to study the formation and processing of organic molecules in space extreme environments and demonstrates the enormous potential of JWST to explore regions of the Universe that have remained hidden until now.
In addition to CAB, the following institutions also contributed to this work: Instituto de Física Fundamental (CSIC; M. Pereira-Santaella, M. Agúndez, G. Speranza), University of Alcalá (E. González-Alfonso) and University of Oxford (D. Rigopoulou, F.R. Donnan, N. Thatte).
Notes for editors:
For media enquiries and interview requests, contact Ismael García Bernete (igbernete@cab.inta-csic.es) and Dimitra Rigopoulou (dimitra.rigopoulou@physics.ox.ac.uk)
The study ‘JWST detection of abundant hydrocarbons in a buried nucleus with signs of grain and PAH processing’ will be published in Nature Astronomy at 10 AM GMT / 11 AM CET Friday 6 February at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02750-0 DOI 10.1038/s41550-025-02750-0.
Project funded through the Programa Atracción de Talento Investigador “César Nombela” (grant 2023-T1/TEC-29030) by the Comunidad de Madrid and INTA.
About the University of Oxford
Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the tenth year running, and number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.
Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.
Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing around £16.9 billion to the UK economy in 2021/22, and supports more than 90,400 full time jobs.
About CAB
The Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) is a joint research center of INTA and CSIC. Created in 1999, it was the first center in the world dedicated specifically to astrobiological research and the first non-US center associated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), currently the NASA Astrobiology Program. It is a multidisciplinary center whose main objective is to study the origin, presence, and influence of life in the universe through a transdisciplinary approach. In 2017, the CAB was awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation as a “María de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence.
The CAB has led the development of the REMS, TWINS y MEDA instruments, operational on Mars since August 2012, November 2018, and February 2021, respectively; as well as the science of the RLS and RAX Raman instruments, which will be sent to Mars at the end of this decade as part of the ExoMars mission and to one of its moons in the MMX mission, respectively. In addition, it is developing the SOLID instrument for the search for life in planetary exploration. The CAB also co-leads, together with three other European institutions, the development of the PLATO space telescope, and participates in various missions and instruments of great astrobiological relevance, such as MMX, CARMENES, CHEOPS, BepiColombo, DART, Hera, the MIRI and NIRSpec in JWST, and the HARMONI in ESO’s ELT (Extremely Large Telescope).
Galactic nucleus and hydrocarbon chemistry in IRAS 07251–0248. Left: Schematic of the nucleus, showing a very hot central component (dark red), a warm layer with gas-phase molecules (orange-yellow), and a cold envelope with solid-phase molecules (blue-gray). Right: Conceptual illustration of how cosmic rays process carbonaceous grains and PAHs, generating the observed hydrocarbon-rich chemistry. Credit: García Bernete et al. Nature Astronomy, 2026.
Credit
García Bernete et al. Nature Astronomy, 2026.
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Article Title
JWST detection of abundant hydrocarbons in a buried nucleus with signs of grain and PAH processing’
Article Publication Date
6-Feb-2026
Origami-inspired space structure is compact when launched, expanded in space
University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering
High-powered satellites use electromagnetic waveguides to deliver energy from one component to another. Typically, they are made of heavy, inflexible metal tubes with an even heavier flange on either end, neither of which is ideal for space applications.
Using origami folding techniques as inspiration, Xin Ning and his graduate students at the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed several design concepts for flexible, lightweight waveguides that can be launched in a compact, folded state, then expanded to full size after being deployed into space.
“My former colleague at Penn State, Sven Bilén, is an expert in electromagnetics. I showed him some origami structures I’d been working on a few years ago. He was intrigued and asked if origami could be used for deployable electromagnetic waveguides. We started exploring this idea since then.” said Xin Ning. “Because the most common electromagnetic waveguides are rectangular-shaped, our origami designs needed to maintain a rectangular cross section in the operational state for comparable performance.”
Ning said the simplest rectangular foldable structure he could think of was a brown paper shopping bag. The rectangular bottom portion acts like the flange. Grad students Nikhil Ashok and Sangwoo Suk created a design with two shopping-bag-like sections to obtain a foldable tube and rectangular inlet and outlet for connection to flanges. Using that as a starting point, they developed more advanced origami electromagnetic waveguides shaped like a bellows. Ning said the folding is time consuming, but by the end, both students mastered the skill.
To fabricate the model, the pattern was printed onto large paper, then laminated with kitchen aluminum foil and folded. For use in spacecraft, Ning said they might be 3D printed durable materials, then coated with more durable high-quality commercial materials such as Kapton and metal laminates.
He said they didn’t choose random cross sections or lengths. Instead, they modeled their structures based on commercial designs so they could compare apples to apples.
“With the first bellows shape, we knew we had a foldable, deployable design that could perform, but we wanted to explore more possibilities with origami principles. We needed to find other designs that could twist and bend as it unfurls at the right angle and the right distance between the flanges. These new designs were more complicated, so we simulated the model to try different distances and angles and achieve a 90-degree twist from the input to the output,” Ning said.
Ning said everything began experimentally before moving to analytical design models. While testing the twisting, bending model, they ran into a snag.
“After a few inches of easy deployment, it suddenly got stuck and we really wanted to understand why. We spent a lot of time trying to understand the mechanics and analyzing the angle and distance and deriving the equations. We saw that when we stretched the model, the load was initially very low, then it would shoot up. We realized that when it is stretched to the point where the creases are flat, the force could break it.”
Ning said adding more folds to achieve a longer waveguide made it more difficult and longer waveguides would result in more energy loss.
“We finally arrived at the maximum distance we want to carry and designed it to reach that point with just enough units, or folds.”
The team now has a pending patent. And although the team’s design focus was initially for spacecraft, the concept can be applied for waveguides used in naval, electrical and communications systems for transferring microwave energy.
The study, “Shape-morphable origami electromagnetic waveguides,” by Nikhil Ashok, Sangwoo Suk, and Xin Ning from Illinois and Sven G. Bilén from Penn State, is published by Communications Engineering, a journal in Nature’s portfolio. DOI: 10.1038/s44172-025-00539-7
Journal
Communications Engineering
Article Title
Shape-morphable origami electromagnetic waveguides
