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Category: mapping

Mars volcano formed through multiple eruptive phases

“Our results show that even during Mars’ most recent volcanic period, magma systems beneath the surface remained active and complex,” said Dr. Bartosz Pieterek. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30240/mars-volcano-f…e-phases-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30240/mars-volcano-f…e-phases-2)

How did young volcanoes on Mars form? This is what a recent study published in the journal Geology hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the complex geological processes responsible for forming the first volcanoes on Mars. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the recent environment on Mars over the last several million years and what this could mean for finding signs of life on the Red Planet.

For the study, the researchers used a combination of mapping and orbital data to analyze the mineralogical and geological volcanic features near one of Mars’ largest volcanoes, Pavonis Mons. The goal of the study was to ascertain the eruption history of these volcanoes, specifically whether they formed from single, short-lived eruptions or perhaps something that lasted longer and was more complex. In the end, the researchers found that the processes involved in forming the volcanoes were far more complex than previously thought. Specifically, the interior volcanic activity consisted of several magma chambers that grew and developed over time, resulting in multiple eruption events and several types of minerals that erupted onto the surface over several eruption cycles.

Norway unveiled a new underwater reconnaissance system for depths of up to 6 km

Norway is implementing technologies to improve underwater sensing. Specifically, a development by the Norwegian company Kongsberg is cited as an example. Kongsberg claims to have created a device that “changes the way the Navy collects intelligence in the underwater environment.”

This is an upgrade to the Argeo Listen platform. The upgrade consists of an enhanced passive electromagnetic sensing system. This reportedly allows for more efficient detection of underwater objects with more precise measurements, followed by mapping.

A Layered Self-Supervised Knowledge Distillation Framework for Efficient Multimodal Learning on the Edge

We introduce Layered Self-Supervised Knowledge Distillation (LSSKD) framework for training compact deep learning models. Unlike traditional methods that rely on pre-trained teacher networks, our approach appends auxiliary classifiers to intermediate feature maps, generating diverse self-supervised knowledge and enabling one-to-one transfer across different network stages. Our method achieves an average improvement of 4.54\% over the state-of-the-art PS-KD method and a 1.14% gain over SSKD on CIFAR-100, with a 0.32% improvement on ImageNet compared to HASSKD. Experiments on Tiny ImageNet and CIFAR-100 under few-shot learning scenarios also achieve state-of-the-art results. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in enhancing model generalization and performance without the need for large over-parameterized teacher networks. Importantly, at the inference stage, all auxiliary classifiers can be removed, yielding no extra computational cost. This makes our model suitable for deploying small language models on affordable low-computing devices. Owing to its lightweight design and adaptability, our framework is particularly suitable for multimodal sensing and cyber-physical environments that require efficient and responsive inference. LSSKD facilitates the development of intelligent agents capable of learning from limited sensory data under weak supervision.

Webb maps the mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus

For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, the team observed Uranus for nearly a full rotation, detecting the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds.

These unique data provide the most detailed portrait yet of where the planet’s auroras form, how they are influenced by its unusually tilted magnetic field, and how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades. The results, published in Geophysical Research Letters, offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.

Led by Paola Tiranti of Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, the study mapped out the temperature and density of ions in the atmosphere extending up to 5,000 kilometers above Uranus’s cloud tops, a region called the ionosphere where the atmosphere becomes ionized and interacts strongly with the planet’s magnetic field. The measurements show that temperatures peak between 3,000 and 4,000 kilometers, while ion densities reach their maximum around 1,000 kilometers, revealing clear longitudinal variations linked to the complex geometry of the magnetic field.

Committee co-chaired by Prof. Dava Newman issues a new roadmap for human missions to Mars

On December 9, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a landmark report, A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars, laying out a comprehensive case for future crewed Mars missions. The report, authored by the Committee on a Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars that was co-chaired by Prof. Dava Newman, defines the highest-priority scientific objectives for humans on the Martian surface.

At the top of the list: searching for evidence of past or present life. “We’re searching for life on Mars,” said Newman in an interview with Ars Technica. “The answer to the question ‘are we alone?’ is always going to be ‘maybe,’ unless it becomes yes.”

The report identifies 11 top science goals for initial human missions, including biosignature/habitability experiments and water and CO₂ cycle studies, geology mapping, radiation monitoring, dust-storm research, and assessments of how Martian conditions affect humans and ecosystems.

Effective connectivity between homologous cortices mediated by the corpus callosum: An axono-cortical evoked potentials study

[Functional brain mapping] Mitsuhashi et al.: “Callosal stimulation showed effective connectivity to homologous cortical regions. Sum of callosal-to-cortex propagation latencies matched interhemispheric latency.” Open access.

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Inside PC gaming’s wildly creative Tomb Raider mapping scene: ‘Being able to create my own adventures for other people to play is such an addicting concept’

“At that time, I had no professional experience in the videogame industry, and I didn’t even really have an artist portfolio, so I made one in a bit of a rush.” Nonetheless, this was enough to convince Saber, and Hatté joined the team as an environment artist, working primarily on Tomb Raider 4–6 Remastered.

“My role on the team was specifically to work on the environments and remaster the textures,” Hatté says. “It was a life changing experience. I’m incredibly grateful to have been given that opportunity.”

Reamsters aside, Tomb Raider has been dormant since 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. But late last year, two new Lara Croft adventures were revealed—a second remake of the original game, and a new adventure by Crystal Dynamics pitched as a sequel to Tomb Raider: Underworld.

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