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Turning Up the Heat: Thermal Energy Storage Could Help Decarbonize Buildings

Berkeley Lab researchers have reported a breakthrough in phase-change materials, which will improve the affordability of thermal energy storage. Phase-change materials can be added inside walls and automatically keep a building cool or warm depending on the ambient temperature. Credit: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab Berkeley Lab research efforts in advanced materials and cost analyses give major boost to an overlooked technology. Could a tank of ice or hot water be a battery? Yes! If a battery is a device for storing energy, then storing hot or cold water to power a building’s heating or air-conditioning system is a different type of…

Possible Chemical Leftovers From Early Earth Sit Near the Planet’s Core

A simulation of the evolution of the Earth’s interior over time, showing the thermal (bottom), chemical (middle), and thermochemical evolution under the simulated conditions. The bottom of each field is the core-mantle boundary. Ultra-low velocity zones can be seen in the top and middle fields, forming at the toes of the light blue zones. Credit: Surya Pachhai Let’s take a journey into the depths of the Earth, down through the crust and mantle nearly to the core. We’ll use seismic waves to show the way, since they echo through the planet following an earthquake and reveal its internal structure like…

At Least 70 Free-Floating Planets Discovered in a Nearby Region of the Milky Way

Lead Image: An artist’s impression of a free-floating planet. Using observations and archival data from several of NSF’s NOIRLab’s observatories, together with observations from telescopes around the world and in orbit, astronomers have discovered at least 70 new free-floating planets — planets that wander through space without a parent star — in a nearby region of the Milky Way known as Upper Scorpius OB stellar association. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva The more than 70 sunless worlds are each roughly the mass of Jupiter. Using observations and archival data from several of NSF’s NOIRLab’s observatories, together with observations from telescopes around…

Double Drop Test Success for ExoMars Mission Parachutes

Lead Image: Artist’s impression of ESA’s ExoMars rover (foreground) and Russia’s science platform (background) on Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab The largest parachute set to fly on Mars has completed its first successful high-altitude drop test, a critical milestone for ensuring the ExoMars mission is on track for launch in 2022. Both the first and second stage parachutes have now successfully flown this year. A pair of high-altitude drop tests took place in Oregon on November 21 and December 3 as part of the ongoing parachute testing to ensure the safe delivery of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover and Kazachok lander…

Surprising Discoveries on Mars: NASA Presents New Findings From Perseverance Mars Rover

Lead Image: This illustration depicts NASA’s Mars 2020 rover studying rocks with its robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The findings by rover scientists highlight the diversity of samples geologists and future scientists associated with the agency’s Mars Sample Return program will have to study. Scientists with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover mission have discovered that the bedrock their six-wheeled explorer has been driving on since landing in February likely formed from red-hot magma. The discovery has implications for understanding and accurately dating critical events in the history of Jezero Crater – as well as the rest of the planet. The team has…