Curiosity watches Martian clouds at the start of a new Mars year

On 9 October 2026, the Curiosity rover marked the beginning of a new Mars year, which is set at the vernal equinox of the northern hemisphere. The mission is using the change of season to track the evolution of the planet's atmosphere, with particular attention to the clouds forming in the sky above Gale crater. The observation plan for sols 5036 to 5042, coordinated by Alex Innanen, an atmospheric scientist at York University, includes cloud tracking and meteorological measurements. Curiosity's cameras allow the formation, movement and dissipation of these clouds to be recorded, data that complement measurements of pressure, temperature and humidity in the Martian environment. Tracking clouds is key to understanding the water and dust cycles on Mars, as well as to refining global atmospheric circulation models. Curiosity's long-term observations, now in its nineteenth Mars year, offer a unique time series that makes it possible to study how the Martian climate changes from one season to the next and from one year to the next. The data gathered in this campaign will add to those obtained by other missions, such as the MAVEN orbiter and the Perseverance rover, to build a more complete picture of the Martian atmosphere. The information is also relevant for future crewed missions, which will depend on precise knowledge of the climate and atmospheric conditions at the surface.

NASA's simulated Mars crew marks one year inside habitat

The four crew members of NASA's simulated Mars mission have completed one year living and working in isolation inside a confined habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The experience replicates the conditions of a future crewed mission to the red planet, with the aim of studying how humans respond to prolonged cohabitation in a confined space cut off from the outside. The simulation is part of the agency's preparations for long-duration missions to Mars, in which astronauts will have to live together for months without any possibility of an immediate return and with limited communications with Earth. Studies of this kind make it possible to analyse human factors —physical and mental health, group dynamics, stress and teamwork management— that are as decisive for mission success as the engineering of the spacecraft itself. During their stay, the crew carries out operational tasks typical of a Mars mission, including simulated extravehicular activities, experiments and resource management inside the habitat. Prolonged cohabitation in a confined environment yields valuable data on how performance and well-being degrade over time, information that is difficult to obtain by other means. The results of this and other analogue missions will help NASA design selection, training and psychological support protocols for the crews that, in the coming decades, undertake the real journey to Mars.

ESA image shows where winds blow and lava flows

The European Space Agency (ESA) has published an image titled «Where winds blow and lava flows», a outreach piece combining observations of atmospheric and volcanic phenomena in a single planetary setting. The photograph is part of the agency's multimedia collection and is available in its digital archive. The material released by ESA includes no technical data, no coordinates of the observed celestial body and no details about the instrument or mission responsible for the capture. The image is accompanied only by its title and a brief description, with no press release or additional scientific context. The subject matter — winds and volcanic activity — fits ESA's usual line of disseminating observations of solar system bodies with active geological and atmospheric dynamics, such as Mars, Venus or the Jovian moons. In the absence of further information, it is not possible to determine which of them appears in the photograph. The image is available in ESA's multimedia gallery, where the agency usually hosts material free for outreach and educational use.

TianQin: standard sirens point to dynamical dark energy

A study explores how the choice of background cosmological model affects mock catalogs of standard sirens from the future space-based gravitational-wave detector TianQin. Until now, all TianQin forecasts were generated assuming the ΛCDM model. In this work, two mock catalogs of bright TianQin standard sirens (TQSS1 and TQSS2) are built from massive black hole binary mergers, one generated under ΛCDM and the other under a redshift-binned dark energy reconstruction model (the wbin model). The cosmological implications are then analyzed within the CPL model. Differences between the two catalogs turn out to be small: the distance-redshift relation differs by at most 1.48%. Taken individually, TQSS1 and TQSS2 yield cosmological constraints similar to those provided by type Ia supernova data, suggesting that this kind of catalogs could complement mainstream cosmological observations. The study also combines TianQin forecasts with baryon acoustic oscillation data from DESI DR2, cosmic microwave background data from Planck 2018, and DESY5 supernova data. The most notable result is that, when combining either catalog with DESI DR2, CMB and DESY5, the preference for dynamical dark energy persists: TQSS1+DESI DR2+CMB+DESY5 shows a 2.3σ preference, while TQSS2+DESI DR2+CMB+DESY5 raises it to 3.8σ. Adopting different massive black hole seed models does not affect the cosmological implications of the mock catalogs. The authors stress the importance of taking into account cosmological models other than ΛCDM when generating standard siren forecasts for dark energy. The work paves the way for future studies systematically exploring how TianQin predictions depend on the underlying cosmological model.