https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Carnegie Institution for Science The interiors of ice giant planets like Uranus and Neptune could be home to a previously unknown state of matter, according to new computational simulations by Carnegie's Cong Liu and Ronald Cohen. Their work, published in Nature Communications, predicts that a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride exists under the extreme pressures and temperatures found deep inside these outer solar system bodies. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-depths-neptune-uranus-superionic.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:00:01 EDT news694435981 An unusual team of astronomers used Sloan Digital Sky Survey-V (SDSS-V) data and observations on the Magellan telescopes at Carnegie Science's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile to discover the most pristine star in the known universe, called SDSS J0715-7334. Their work is published in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-pristine-star-universe.html Astronomy Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:40:03 EDT news694431725 How does a star affect the makeup of its planets? And what does this mean for the habitability of distant worlds? Carnegie's Luke Bouma is exploring a new way to probe this critical question—using naturally occurring space weather stations that orbit at least 10% of M dwarf stars during their early lives. He presented his work at the American Astronomical Society meeting (AAS 247) held in Phoenix in January. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-scientists-harness-plasma-clumps-stellar.html Astrobiology Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:50:01 EDT news694100989 How does a star affect the makeup of its planets? And what does this mean for the habitability of distant worlds? Carnegie's Luke Bouma is exploring a new way to probe this critical question—using naturally occurring space weather stations that orbit at least 10% of M dwarf stars during their early lives. He is presenting his work at the 247th American Astronomical Society meeting. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-plasma-dwarf-stars-clues-planetary.html Astronomy Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:30:05 EST news687025271 A Carnegie-led team of astronomers detected the strongest evidence yet of an atmosphere around a rocky planet beyond our solar system. Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, used NASA's JWST to reveal an alien atmosphere in an unexpected place—an ancient, ultra-hot super-Earth that likely hosts a magma ocean. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ultra-hot-lava-world-thick.html Astronomy Sun, 28 Dec 2025 08:50:01 EST news684737293 Our galaxy's most abundant type of planet could be rich in liquid water due to formative interactions between magma oceans and primitive atmospheres during their early years, according to new research published in Nature by Carnegie's Francesca Miozzi and Anat Shahar. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-large-quantities-natural-consequence-planet.html Astrobiology Thu, 30 Oct 2025 12:00:01 EDT news680952601 Mercury doesn't give up its secrets easily. The smallest planet in our solar system is also one of the most extreme—a sun-scorched, metal-rich world with a puzzling magnetic field and lavas unlike anything found on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-mercury-experimental-geophysics-revealing-strangest.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Jun 2025 10:50:01 EDT news669462040 Robust water-management strategies will be necessary to overcome discrepancies between water supply and demand in a warming world, according to a new analysis by Carnegie Science's Lorenzo Rosa and Matteo Sangiorgio of the Polytechnic University of Milan. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-gap-demand-climate-shifts-analysis.html Environment Mon, 17 Feb 2025 14:10:07 EST news659023801 A team of researchers led by Carnegie Science's Will Ludington, Karina Gutiérrez-García, and Kevin Aumiller identified genes that enable a beneficial bacterial species to colonize specific regions of the gastrointestinal tract. Their work, published in Science, could revolutionize our understanding of how the composition of the gut microbiome is determined and open the door to microbiome engineering. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-stability-microbiome-optimized-probiotic-creation.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 11 Dec 2024 14:47:04 EST news653150821 The world's freshwater lakes are freezing over for shorter periods of time due to climate change. This shift has major implications for human safety, as well as water quality, biodiversity, and global nutrient cycles, according to a review from an international team of researchers led by Carnegie Science's Stephanie Hampton. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-loss-lake-ice-wide-ranging.html Earth Sciences Thu, 10 Oct 2024 14:00:01 EDT news647774156 Twenty years ago, the MESSENGER mission revolutionized our understanding of Mercury. We sat down with project head and former Carnegie Science director Sean Solomon to talk about how the mission came together and the groundbreaking work it enabled. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-qa-scientist-discusses-messenger-mission.html Space Exploration Mon, 02 Sep 2024 13:41:40 EDT news644503294 We sat down with Carnegie Science Observatories theoretical astrophysicist Tony Prio to talk about T Coronae Borealis, the stellar explosion that occurs once every 80 years and is due to light up in the coming months. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-qa-astronomers-await-year-stellar.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Sep 2024 11:51:04 EDT news644496661 By the middle of the century, three-quarters of Ukrainian croplands—a critical source of the world's grain and oilseeds—will experience water shortages due to the combination of climate change and infrastructural damage caused by the Russian invasion, according to new research from an international research team led by Carnegie Science's Lorenzo Rosa and including members of the World Bank's Global Water Practice unit. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-sustainable-irrigation-critical-recovery-ukrainian.html Agriculture Fri, 19 Jul 2024 10:33:26 EDT news640604000 It's hard to overstate the importance of photosynthesis, the biochemical pathway by which plants, algae, and certain bacteria convert the sun's energy into the organic material that feeds the entire living biosphere. But there are still aspects of the photosynthetic function that scientists are working to understand. Expanding their knowledge could help improve agriculture and fight climate change. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-photosynthesis-powers-world-fuels-fundamental.html Plants & Animals Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:15:03 EDT news639836101 Reducing pollution from aerosol particles would improve air quality. It could also increase the amount of sunlight accessible to plants—enhancing their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-air-quality-natural-carbon-sequestration.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:06:04 EST news619783561 Diamonds contain evidence of the mantle rocks that helped buoy and grow the ancient supercontinent Gondwana from below, according to new research from a team of scientists led by Suzette Timmerman—formerly of the University of Alberta and now at the University of Bern—and including Carnegie's Steven Shirey, Michael Walter, and Andrew Steele. Their findings, published in Nature, demonstrate that superdeep diamonds can provide a window through space and time into the supercontinent growth and formation process. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-superdeep-diamonds-window-supercontinent-growth.html Earth Sciences Sun, 29 Oct 2023 16:40:01 EDT news617384059 As climate change warms the Earth, higher-latitude regions will be at greater risk for toxins produced by algal blooms, according to new research led by Carnegie's Anna Michalak, Julian Merder, and Gang Zhao. Their findings, published in Nature Water, identify water temperatures of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit) as being at the greatest risk for developing dangerous levels of a common algae-produced toxin called microcystin. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-climate-high-toxin-northern-lakes.html Ecology Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:32:02 EDT news617283118 A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes "a missing law of nature," recognizing for the first time an important norm within the natural world's workings. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-scientists-philosophers-nature-evolutionary-law.html Evolution Mon, 16 Oct 2023 15:00:01 EDT news616665755 As renewable energy sources like wind and solar ramp up, they can be used to sustainably generate hydrogen fuel. But implementing such a strategy on a large scale requires land and water dedicated to this purpose. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-sustainability-future-hydrogen-economy.html Business Thu, 21 Sep 2023 14:27:33 EDT news614525250 As climate change progresses, rising temperatures may impact nitrogen runoff from land to lakes and streams more than projected increases in total and extreme precipitation for most of the continental United States, according to new research from a team of Carnegie climate scientists led by Gang Zhao and Anna Michalak published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nitrogen-runoff-strategies-complicated-climate.html Environment Tue, 08 Aug 2023 14:25:04 EDT news610723498 As the world heats up due to climate change, how much can we continue to depend on plants and soils to help alleviate some of our self-inflicted damage by removing carbon pollution from the atmosphere? https://phys.org/news/2023-06-world-impact-earth-ability-offset.html Environment Thu, 15 Jun 2023 12:05:03 EDT news606049501 Technological innovation and investment will be needed to reduce agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions to zero, according to new work from Carnegie Staff Associate Lorenzo Rosa and Visiting Scholar Paolo Gabrielli. Their findings were recently published in Environmental Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-blueprint-zero-emissions-agriculture.html Environment Wed, 14 Jun 2023 16:56:22 EDT news605980577 New work led by Carnegie's Phillip Cleves uses cutting-edge CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tools to reveal a gene that's critical to stony corals' ability to build their reef architectures. It is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-crisprcas9-reveals-key-gene-involved.html Evolution Mon, 05 Jun 2023 15:00:02 EDT news605176152 New research led by Carnegie's Yixian Zhen and Minjie Hu reveals how coral cells tag friendly algae before ingesting them, initiating a mutually beneficial relationship. This information could guide next-level coral conservation efforts. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-corals-friendly-algae-ingestionrevealing.html Ecology Mon, 22 May 2023 12:11:03 EDT news603976261 Earth's water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth's formative years, according to new work from Carnegie Science's Anat Shahar and UCLA's Edward Young and Hilke Schlichting. Their findings, which could explain the origins of Earth's signature features, are published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-earth.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Apr 2023 11:26:03 EDT news600517561 The digestive tract of fruit flies remodels itself to accommodate beneficial microbiome species and maintain long-term stability of the gut environment, according to new research led by William Ludington and Allan Spradling of the Carnegie Institution for Science. Their findings are published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-gut-cozy-home-beneficial-microbiome.html Ecology Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:17:00 EDT news599325416 A team of astronomers led by Carnegie's Shubham Kanodia has discovered an unusual planetary system in which a large gas giant planet orbits a small red dwarf star called TOI-5205. Their findings, which are published in The Astronomical Journal, challenge long-held ideas about planet formation. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-forbidden-planet-orbiting-small-star.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Feb 2023 12:55:03 EST news596292901 A new technique developed by Carnegie's Yingwei Fei and Lin Wang provides fresh insight into the process by which the materials that formed Earth's core descended into the depths of our planet, leaving behind geochemical traces that have long mystified scientists. Their work is published by Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-early-earth-core-formation-coffee.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:46:34 EST news595773992 Earth's potassium arrived by meteoritic delivery service finds new research led by Carnegie's Nicole Nie and Da Wang. Their work, published in Science, shows that some primitive meteorites contain a different mix of potassium isotopes than those found in other, more-chemically processed meteorites. These results can help elucidate the processes that shaped our solar system and determined the composition of its planets. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-solar-poorly-cake-batter-isotope.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 26 Jan 2023 14:00:03 EST news593961175 The Martian meteorite Tissint contains a huge diversity of organic compounds, found an international team of researchers led by Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich's Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin and including Carnegie's Andrew Steele. Their work is published in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-martian-meteorite-diverse-array-compounds.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Jan 2023 11:36:03 EST news592745761