Scientists analysing data from the Cassini-Huygens mission have uncovered a significant structural surprise in Saturn’s protective magnetic bubble.

Researchers say this discovery confirms that giant planets operate under a different magnetospheric regime from the Earth’s.

The study in Nature Communications includes Dr Licia Ray and Dr Sarah Badman from Lancaster University with Dr Chris Arridge, formerly of Lancaster. 

Reading Weather and Climate since 1831, by Dr Stephen Burt, combines vivid historical accounts and contemporary photography from the past 200 years. 

Saturn's magnetic shield is asymmetrical compared to Earth’s, suggests a new study involving University College London (UCL) researchers, and this is likely a result of its fast rotation coupled with the heavy material it pulls around it.

Researchers have developed a nanostructured optical platform that converts surface-bound light into free-space beams with controlled orbital angular momentum. The system combines a dielectric multilayer that supports low-loss Bloch surface waves with a chiral metasurface made of gold nanorods. When surface waves are excited, the metasurface diffracts them into twisted light beams with a well-defined polarization, achieving more than 74 percent polarization selectivity. The results demonstrate a low-loss route to generating structured light and could support future integration with nanoscale and single-photon light sources.

IITGN researchers have proposed the concept of virtual actuation space (VAS) for Tendon-driven Continuum Robots (TDCRs). This framework can handle multiple sections of a robot with ease, significantly reduce computational demands and improve tracking precision. The scalability of this method can unlock potential in applications, such as minimally invasive surgical procedures, industrial automation, and confined-space inspections, like in aircraft engines.

In the vastness of the Universe, any new object with interesting properties can spur the search for similar objects, potentially establishing a new class of stars. In a paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and an arXiv preprint, researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) describe two stellar remnants that share five properties, including X-ray emission, despite being isolated objects. According to the team, these two remnants are sufficient to define a new class of stars.