In the Aug. 5 SN: Seismologists study North Korea’s nukes, souped up solar cells, Larsen C finally cracks through, marshmallow test goes to Africa, bacteria’s mysterious architecture, an entanglement distance record, solar eclipse paths to come and more.
ANCIENT FEATURES Northeast Syrtis Major (shown) is a candidate landing site for the Mars 2020 mission. The bedrock in the region is more than 4 billion years old. Certain ridges there may be the result of ancient hot springs, a new study of similar features elsewhere on Mars suggests.
UNIV. OF ARIZONA, JPL-CALTECH/NASA
STEALING GAS The galaxies M81 (left) and M82 (right) may be exchanging gas. Supernova explosions in M82 would toss out gas that could be pulled toward M81, helping it bulk up.
Markus Schopfer/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)
HARD KNOCKS A degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy turns up in athletes like football players who take many hits to the head.
vladacanon/iStockphoto
TIME OUT Electrons can escape their atoms, even if the particles don’t have enough energy to do so, through quantum tunneling. But such tunneling takes time, a new study suggests.
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