Search

The surface of active asteroid (3200) Phaethon, parent body of the Geminid meteor shower, reaches temperatures sufficient to destabilize hydrated materials. Here, the authors show that the northern hemisphere and the equatorial region of this asteroid reveal no evidence of hydration in the near-infrared spectra.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission’s impact on asteroid Dimorphos has led to various impact related features. Here, the authors show that those features result naturally from the dynamical interaction of the ejecta with the binary system and solar radiation pressure.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission impact on asteroid Dimophos resulted in an elliptical ejecta plume. Here, the authors show that this elliptical ejecta is due to the curvature of the asteroid and makes kinetic momentum transfer less efficient.

The impact of the DART spacecraft on the asteroid Dimorphos is reported and reconstructed, demonstrating that kinetic impactor technology is a viable technique to potentially defend Earth from asteroids.

Images collected during NASA’s DART mission of the asteroid Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos, are used to explore the origin and evolution of the binary system. Authors analysis indicate that both asteroids are weak rubble piles and that Didymos’ surface should be about 40 to 130 times older than Dimorphos.

The chemokine CXCL10 is associated with pathogenesis of cerebral malaria in Plasmodium falciparum infection. Here the authors show that P. falciparum produces extracellular vesicles laden with RNAs that are taken up by monocytes resulting in a RIG-I and HUR-1 mediated mechanism of inhibition of CXCL10 protein translation.

Recent evidence has blurred the line between comets and asteroids, although until now neither ice nor organic material had been detected on the surface of an asteroid. Here, the spectroscopic detection of water ice and organic material on the asteroid 24 Themis is reported. Water ice thus seems to be more common on asteroids than previously thought, and may be widespread in asteroidal interiors at smaller heliocentric distances than expected.

The 33 minute change in the orbital period of Dimorphos after the DART kinetic impact suggests that ejecta contributed a substantial amount of momentum to the asteroid compared with the DART spacecraft alone.

The authors report on a determination of the momentum transferred to an asteroid by kinetic impact, showing that the DART kinetic impact was highly effective in deflecting the asteroid Dimorphos.

Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a complex evolution of the ejecta produced by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft impacting Dimorphos.

An examination of motor cortex in humans, marmosets and mice reveals a generally conserved cellular makeup that is likely to extend to many mammalian species, but also differences in gene expression, DNA methylation and chromatin state that lead to species-dependent specializations.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission intentionally impacted the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, and this kinetic impact changed Dimorphos’ orbit around its binary companion Didymos. This first planetary defense test explored technological readiness for this method of asteroid deflection.

Planetary Defense efforts rely on estimates of asteroids’ mechanical properties, which are difficult to obtain accurately from Earth. Here, authors compare images from space missions to the rubble-pile asteroids Dimorphos, Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu and study such properties through boulders on their surface.

Telescopic measurements of asteroids' colours rarely match laboratory reflectance spectra of meteorites owing to a 'space weathering' process that rapidly reddens asteroid surfaces. 'Unweathered' asteroids, however, with spectra matching ordinary chondrite meteorites, are seen only among small bodies with orbits that cross inside the orbits of Mars and Earth. Such unweathered asteroids are now shown to have experienced orbital intersections closer than the Earth–Moon distance within the past half-million years.

The authors describe an integrated atlas of the diverse cell types in the mouse primary motor cortex.

The mineralogy of the dwarf planet Ceres has long remained uncertain. The infrared spectral features of this planetary body are indicative of minerals derived from the aqueous alteration of olivine-rich materials, suggesting that Ceres is not represented by any known meteorite.

This study uses epi-retro-seq to link single-cell epigenomes and cell types to long-distance projections for neurons dissected from different regions projecting to different targets across the whole mouse brain.

A comprehensive survey of the epigenome from 45 regions of the mouse cortex, hippocampus, striatum, pallidum and olfactory areas using single-nucleus DNA methylation sequencing enables identification of 161 cell clusters with distinct locations and projection targets and provides insights into the regulatory landscape underlying neuronal diversity and spatial regulation.

Quantitative analysis of the methylation of mouse cortical neurons that project to different cortical and subcortical target regions provides insight into genetic mechanisms that contribute to differences in cell function.

The BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network has constructed a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex in a landmark effort towards understanding brain cell-type diversity, neural circuit organization and brain function.

Various observer programmes, in which early-career scientists participate in science meetings for NASA’s planetary missions, have been set up in recent years. This Perspective analyses the effectiveness of two such programmes: InSightSeers and DART Boarders.

This paper reports a strategy for combining somatic mutation profiles of human tumors with gene networks to stratify tumors into biologically and clinically relevant subtypes. The method is applied to ovarian, uterine and lung cancers.

Trey Ideker and colleagues report a comprehensive genome-wide analysis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, reporting that TP53 mutations are frequently accompanied by loss of chromosome 3p. Their data indicate that the combination of these two events has a stronger negative effect on survival rate than either event alone.