Far and Wide Part 4: Teamwork - NASA Goddard

 

Male bonobos track females' reproductive cycle to maximize mating success - Biology - Plants & Animals - Ecology

Male–male agonistic interaction during a mating attempt in wild bonobos. Credit: Heungjin Ryu (CC-BY 4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Male bonobos can decipher females' unreliable fertility signals, allowing them to focus their efforts on matings with the highest chance of conception, according to a study by Heungjin Ryu at Kyoto University, Japan, and colleagues published in PLOS Biology.

In most mammals, females are only receptive to mating during ovulation, allowing males to time their mating efforts to maximize the chances of conception. But in some primates, such as bonobos (Pan paniscus), females become sexually receptive and display a conspicuous pink swelling around the genitals for a prolonged period of time.

How researchers studied bonobo fertility

To investigate how males cope with this unreliable fertility signal, researchers studied a group of wild bonobos at Wamba in the Luo Scientific Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

During daily observations, they recorded sexual behaviors and visually estimated the status of each female's genital swelling. They also used filter paper to collect urine samples of the females, allowing them to measure estrogen and progesterone levels and estimate the timing of ovulation.

They found that ovulation probability peaked between eight and 27 days after females reached maximum swelling, making it difficult for males to predict. Despite this, males' sexual advances were closely aligned with the timing of ovulation. Males concentrated their mating efforts on females that had reached maximum swelling earlier, and whose infant offspring were older—two key sources of information indicating a higher probability of ovulation. 

In this clip, the beta male Nobita carefully looks at the sexual swelling of the female Sala while they forage for fungi on the forest floor. Male bonobos take this task seriously—watching and checking swelling changes so they do not miss potential ovulatory periods. Credit: Heungjin Ryu (CC-BY 4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Implications for bonobo mating strategies

The results show that males focus their mating efforts on the most fertile females by combining information about the timing of swelling and reproductive history. Because male bonobos can effectively estimate female fertility despite an unreliable signal, there has likely been little evolutionary pressure for the signal to become more precise. This may explain how this system has been maintained over evolutionary time, the authors say.

The authors add, "In this study, we found that bonobo males, instead of trying to predict precise ovulation timing, use a flexible strategy—paying attention to the end-signal cue of the sexual swelling along with infant age—to fine-tune their mating efforts. This finding reveals that even imprecise signals can remain evolutionarily functional when animals use them flexibly rather than expecting perfect accuracy.

"Our results help explain how conspicuous but noisy ovulatory signals, like those of bonobos, can persist and shape mating strategies in complex social environments.

"The male bonobos weren't the only ones paying close attention to sexual swelling—we spent countless days in the rainforest at Wamba, DRC doing exactly the same thing! All that watching, sweating, and scribbling in our notebooks eventually paid off. By tracking these daily changes, we uncovered just how impressively bonobos can read meaning in a signal that seems noisy and confusing to us."

Provided by Public Library of Science 

by Public Library of Science

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Male bonobos track females' reproductive cycle to maximize mating success

NASA’s Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond - UNIVERSE

Editor's Note, Jan. 11, 2026: NASA’s Pandora and the NASA-sponsored BlackCAT and SPARCS missions lifted off at 8:44 a.m. EST (5:44 a.m. PST) Sunday, Jan. 11.

A new NASA spacecraft called Pandora is awaiting launch ahead of its journey to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, and their stars.

Along for the ride are two shoebox-sized satellites called BlackCAT (Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) and SPARCS (Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat), as NASA innovates with ambitious science missions that take low-cost, creative approaches to answering questions like, “How does the universe work?” and “Are we alone?”

All three missions are set to launch Jan. 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The launch window opens at 8:19 a.m. EST (5:19 a.m. PST). SpaceX will livestream the event.

Artist’s concept of NASA’s Pandora mission, which will help scientists untangle the signals from the atmospheres of exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — and their stars.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab

“Pandora’s goal is to disentangle the atmospheric signals of planets and stars using visible and near-infrared light,” said Elisa Quintana, Pandora’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This information can help astronomers determine if detected elements and compounds are coming from the star or the planet — an important step as we search for signs of life in the cosmos.”

BlackCAT and SPARCS are small satellites that will study the transient, high-energy universe and the activity of low-mass stars, respectively.

Pandora will observe planets as they pass in front of their stars as seen from our perspective, events called transits.

As starlight passes through a planet’s atmosphere, it interacts with substances like water and oxygen that absorb characteristic wavelengths, adding their chemical fingerprints to the signal.

But while only a small fraction of the star’s light grazes the planet, telescopes also collect the rest of the light emitted by the star’s facing side. Stellar surfaces can sport brighter and darker regions that grow, shrink, and change position over time, suppressing or magnifying signals from planetary atmospheres. Adding a further complication, some of these areas may contain the same chemicals that astronomers hope to find in the planet’s atmosphere, such as water vapor.

All these factors make it difficult to be certain that important detected molecules come from the planet alone.

Pandora will help address this problem by providing in-depth study of at least 20 exoplanets and their host stars during its initial year. The satellite will look at each planet and its star 10 times, with each observation lasting a total of 24 hours. Many of these worlds are among the over 6,000 discovered by missions like NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).

This view of the fully integrated Pandora spacecraft was taken May 19, 2025, following the mission’s successful environmental test campaign at Blue Canyon Technologies in Lafayette, Colorado. Visible are star trackers (center), multilayer insulation blankets (white), the end of the telescope (top), and the solar panel (right) in its launch configuration.

NASA/BCT

Pandora will collect visible and near-infrared light using a novel, all-aluminum 17-inch-wide (45-centimeter) telescope jointly developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Corning Incorporated in Keene, New Hampshire. Pandora’s near-infrared detector is a spare developed for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Each long observation period will capture a star’s light both before and during a transit and help determine how stellar surface features impact measurements.

“These intense studies of individual systems are difficult to schedule on high-demand missions, like Webb,” said engineer Jordan Karburn, Pandora’s deputy project manager at Livermore. “You also need the simultaneous multiwavelength measurements to pick out the star’s signal from the planet’s. The long stares with both detectors are critical for tracing the exact origins of elements and compounds scientists consider indicators of potential habitability.”

Pandora is the first satellite to launch in the agency’s Astrophysics Pioneers program, which seeks to do compelling astrophysics at a lower cost while training the next generation of leaders in space science.

After launching into low Earth orbit, Pandora will undergo a month of commissioning before embarking on its one-year prime mission. All the mission’s data will be publicly available.

“The Pandora mission is a bold new chapter in exoplanet exploration,” said Daniel Apai, an astronomy and planetary science professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson where the mission’s operations center resides. “It is the first space telescope built specifically to study, in detail, starlight filtered through exoplanet atmospheres. Pandora’s data will help scientists interpret observations from past and current missions like NASA’s Kepler and Webb space telescopes. And it will guide future projects in their search for habitable worlds.”

Watch to learn more about NASA’s Pandora mission, which will revolutionize the study of exoplanet atmospheres.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The BlackCAT and SPARCS missions will take off alongside Pandora through NASA’s Astrophysics CubeSat program, the latter supported by the Agency's CubeSat Launch Initiative.

CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites that come in sizes that are multiples of a standard cube measuring 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) across. Both BlackCAT and SPARCS are 11.8 by 7.8 by 3.9 inches (30 by 20 by 10 centimeters). CubeSats are designed to provide cost-effective access to space to test new technologies and educate early career scientists and engineers while delivering compelling science.

The BlackCAT mission will use a wide-field telescope and a novel type of X-ray detector to study powerful cosmic explosions like gamma-ray bursts, particularly those from the early universe, and other fleeting cosmic events. It will join NASA’s network of missions that watch for these changes. Abe Falcone at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, where the satellite was designed and built, leads the mission with contributions from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Kongsberg NanoAvionics US provided the spacecraft bus.

The SPARCS CubeSat will monitor flares and other activity from low-mass stars using ultraviolet light to determine how they affect the space environment around orbiting planets. Evgenya Shkolnik at Arizona State University in Tempe leads the mission with participation from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. In addition to providing science support, JPL developed the ultraviolet detectors and the associated electronics. Blue Canyon Technologies fabricated the spacecraft bus.

Pandora is led by NASA Goddard. Livermore provides the mission’s project management and engineering. Pandora’s telescope was manufactured by Corning and developed collaboratively with Livermore, which also developed the imaging detector assemblies, the mission’s control electronics, and all supporting thermal and mechanical subsystems. The near-infrared sensor was provided by NASA Goddard. Blue Canyon Technologies provided the bus and performed spacecraft assembly, integration, and environmental testing. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley will perform the mission’s data processing. Pandora’s mission operations center is located at the University of Arizona, and a host of additional universities support the science team.

By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Source: NASA’s Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond - NASA Science

Extreme January Cold - NASA Earth Observatory - EARTH

January 21-29, 2026

In the wake of a winter storm that blanketed numerous U.S. states with snow and ice, unusually low temperatures continued to grip a large swath of the nation east of the Rockies in late January 2026. The cold spell was notable for severity, longevity, and geographic scope.

This animation depicts surface air temperatures across part of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America, from January 21 to 29. It combines satellite observations with temperatures calculated by a version of the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) global model, which uses mathematical equations to simulate physical processes in the atmosphere.

Dark blue areas indicate the lowest surface air temperatures. The brief pulses show daily warming and cooling, while the broader pattern reveals cold air spreading south and east and lingering through much of the week.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the surge of Arctic air pushed deep into the United States on January 22, ushering in a period of low temperatures and harsh wind chills. The cold coincided with a jet of moisture to produce significant accumulations of snow and ice spanning from the U.S. Southwest to New England.

In the days after the storm, dangerously cold weather persisted. In the Midwest, for example, the temperature in Alliance, Nebraska, dropped to minus 26 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 32 degrees Celsius) on January 24, the lowest daily minimum temperature for that date on record, according to preliminary NWS reports. In the South, an extreme cold warning was in effect in south-central Texas overnight on January 26, with temperatures dipping into the single digits. By January 27, parts of the South had started to see slight warming, but wind chills down to -20°F (-29°C) continued across the Midwest and Northeast. 

According to meteorologists, the cold snap was caused by frigid air from the Canadian and Siberian Arctic funneling into eastern North America, then being driven south as high-pressure systems forced the jet stream to dip. Forecasts called for another blast of Arctic air late in the week, with below-normal temperatures persisting into early February.

The lingering cold has posed extra challenges to those who remained without power or heat after the storm and for those working to clean up, clear streets, and restore power and transportation services.

NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System has been activated to support agencies responding to the winter storm. The team will be posting maps and data products on its open-access mapping portal as new information becomes available.

NASA Earth Observatory images and animation by Lauren Dauphin, using GEOS data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

References & Resources

• The Conversation (2026, January 24) How the polar vortex and warm ocean intensified a major US winter storm. Accessed January 29, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2026, January 28) Snow Buries the U.S. Interior and East. Accessed January 29, 2026.
• NBC News (2026, January 27) Millions remain under warnings as extreme cold has icy grip on much of the U.S. Accessed January 29, 2026.
• NWS Weather Prediction Center, via X (2026, January 27) Dangerously cold temperatures continue. Accessed January 29, 2026.
• The Washington Post (2026, January 28) Extreme cold spell shaping up as one of D.C.’s longest in 150 years. Accessed January 29, 2026.
• Yale Climate Connections (2026, January 23) Winter 2025-26 (finally) hits the U.S. with a vengeance. Accessed January 29, 2026. 

Source: Extreme January Cold - NASA Science

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Higher water levels could turn cultivated peatland in the North into a CO₂ sink - Earth - Earth Sciences - Environment

Northern lights over the experimental trial site in Pasvik. Credit: Mikhail Mastepanov

In its natural state, peatland is one of the largest carbon stores in nature. This is because the soil is so waterlogged and low in oxygen that dead plant material breaks down very slowly. The plants do not fully decompose but instead accumulate over thousands of years, forming thick layers of peat. When a peatland is drained for agricultural use, the water level drops and oxygen enters the peat layer. Microorganisms can then break down the old plant material much faster, releasing carbon that has been stored for many years as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Well-studied in the South, but not in the North

Since the 1600s, large peatland areas in Europe and the Nordic region have been drained, and many studies have investigated how drainage and changing water levels influence greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is little knowledge about the northernmost drained peatlands, where the climate is characterized by low temperatures, long, light summer nights, and short growing seasons.

"From studies in warmer regions, we know that raising the groundwater level in drained and cultivated peatland often reduces CO₂ emissions, because the peat decomposes more slowly," explains NIBIO researcher Junbin Zhao. "At the same time, wetter and low-oxygen conditions can increase methane, since the microbes that produce methane thrive when there is almost no oxygen in the soil."

Under certain conditions, nitrous oxide emissions may also rise. This happens when the soil is moist but not fully waterlogged, so that nitrogen breakdown stops halfway and produces nitrous oxide instead of harmless nitrogen gas.

"Because each greenhouse gas reacts differently to changes in water level, one gas can go down while another goes up. That's why it's important to look at the overall gas balance," says Zhao. "We need to measure CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide at the same time and throughout the whole season to understand the real net effect in the northernmost agricultural areas."

Two-year field trial in the Pasvik Valley, Finnmark

In 2022 and 2023, Zhao and colleagues conducted an extensive field trial at NIBIO's station at Svanhovd in the Pasvik Valley in Northern Norway. Automatic chambers measured CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions several times a day throughout the growing season.

"The experiment included five plots that together reflected typical management conditions found in a drained agricultural field—with different groundwater levels, different amounts of fertilizer, and different numbers of harvests per season," Zhao explains. The results are published in the journal Global Change Biology.

The researchers wanted to answer three questions:

1.   Can raising the groundwater level make a cultivated Arctic peatland close to climate-neutral?

2.   Does the water level affect soil CO₂ emissions more than it affects plant CO₂ uptake?

3.   How do fertilization and harvesting influence the total climate balance?

High water levels reduced emissions

The results showed that when the peatland in Pasvik was well drained, it emitted large amounts of CO₂—about the same as other cultivated peatlands further south. However, when the groundwater was raised to 25–50 cm below the surface, emissions dropped sharply.

"At these higher water levels, methane and nitrous oxide emissions were also low, giving a much better overall gas balance. Under such conditions, the field even absorbed slightly more CO₂ than it released," says Zhao.

High groundwater in cultivated Arctic peatland may therefore be an effective climate measure.

"Our findings are especially interesting because emissions were measured continuously around the clock. This meant we captured short spikes of unusually high emissions and natural daily fluctuations, details often missed when measurements are taken only occasionally."

Works best in cold climates

When the groundwater is high, the soil becomes wetter and oxygen levels in the root zone fall. Under these conditions, plants are less active and take up less CO₂.

Even so, the total CO₂ emissions decrease in the field.

"This is because wet conditions mean that the field needs less light before it starts to absorb more CO₂ than it releases. When this threshold is reached earlier in the day, you get more hours with net carbon uptake," Zhao explains. "Our calculations show that this effect is especially strong in the north, due to the long, light summer nights. These provide many extra hours where the system remains on the positive side, which can increase total CO₂ uptake significantly."

Temperature, however, proved to be a key factor. The researchers found that when soil temperatures rose above about 12°C, microbial activity increased.

"At higher temperatures, microorganisms break down organic material faster, and both CO₂ and methane emissions rise," says Zhao. "This means that the effect of high water levels is greatest in cool climates—and that future warming could reduce the benefit. In practice, this means water levels must be considered together with temperature and local conditions."

Fertilization and harvesting: Balancing production and carbon

Fertilization and harvesting also affected the climate balance. When the researchers applied more fertilizer, the grass grew better. "More fertilizer produced more biomass but did not lead to noticeable changes in CO₂ or methane emissions in our experiment," says Zhao.

Harvesting, however, had a clear effect. When the grass was cut and removed, carbon was removed from the system because plants store carbon as they grow. "If harvesting is very frequent, more carbon can be taken out than is built up again over time. The peat layer may gradually lose carbon even when water levels are kept high," Zhao explains.

He says it is therefore important to consider water level, fertilization, and harvesting strategy together. Measures that reduce emissions in the short term may reduce carbon storage in the long term, which can weaken soil health.

"One solution could be paludiculture, i.e., growing plant species that tolerate wet conditions so that biomass can be produced without keeping the soil dry."

Local variations can alter the climate balance

The researchers found large differences in emissions within the same field. Some areas absorbed CO₂, while others released large amounts.

"Such local variation can greatly influence national climate accounting and how measures are designed, because one standard emission factor may not reflect reality everywhere," Zhao says. "The results from our study show a clear need for more detailed measurements and more precise water-level management in practice, especially where soils and farming conditions vary significantly between locations." 

Provided by Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

by Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Higher water levels could turn cultivated peatland in the North into a CO₂ sink