Combing through 20 years of images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, scientists have tracked 1039 tornado-like whirlwinds to reveal how dust is lifted into the air and swept around Mars’s surface.

Published today in Science Advances, their findings – including that the strongest winds on Mars blow much faster than we thought – give us a much clearer picture of the Red Planet’s weather and climate.

And with these ‘dust devils’ collected into a single public catalogue, this research is just the beginning. Besides pure science, it will be useful for planning future missions, for example incorporating provisions for the irksome dust that settles on the solar panels of our robotic rovers.

In a pioneering study that explores innovative solutions for soil salinization, researchers are investigating the effects of subsurface organic fertilization on microbial necromass accumulation in saline soils. The study, titled "Subsurface Application of Organic Ameliorant in Saline Soils Increases Microbial Necromass Accumulation in Mineral-Associated Organic Matter," is led by Prof. Yuyi Li from the State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arable Land in China at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, China. This research offers valuable insights into how subsurface organic fertilization can enhance soil health and mitigate the impacts of salinization.

A University of Sydney student has developed a completely new way to peer inside coral fossils to recover lost records of past climate change. The method opens the door to recovering climate information from coral samples once written off as too altered to be useful