Reliable 5G positioning is vital for smart cities, driverless cars, and next-gen mobile services. Yet in dense urban landscapes, high-rise buildings often distort signals, leading to major positioning errors.

The Max Planck-IAS-NTU Center (MPC) for Particle Physics, Cosmology, and Geometry is a new global research center established to better understand the universe at all scales. The collaborative initiative will be led by Co-Directors Nima Arkani-Hamed, Gopal Prasad Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, Johannes Henn (MPP), and Daniel Baumann (NTU), both past Members in the School.

The planet Mars is home to thick layers of clay that can span hundreds of feet. Since they need water to form, these outcrops have long been of interest to scientists looking for signs of past life on the Red Planet.

In a new study in Nature Astronomy, scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and collaborators took a closer at these clay terrains and found that most formed near standing bodies of surface water, which were common on Mars billions of years ago. This environment would help foster the chemical weathering needed to create thick, mineral-rich layers of clay and could have provided the right mix of water, minerals and a calm environment for life to develop.

A sweeping new review reveals how satellites are helping scientists track a quiet but widespread shift in global agriculture: the abandonment of cropland.

Satellite data used by archaeologists to find traces of ancient ruins hidden under dense forest canopies can also be used to improve the speed and accuracy to measure how much carbon is retained and released in forests. Understanding this carbon cycle is key to climate change research.

New observations of 30 planet-forming disks – the birthplaces of planets around stars – reveal in greater detail than ever how gas and dust behave over time and shape the evolution of exoplanet systems.