News About The Oceans of Earth

Rock microbes reveal hidden groundwater carbon engine

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 03, 2026 - Deep underground, microbial communities living on rock surfaces are emerging as powerful but largely overlooked drivers of groundwater chemistry and carbon storage. A team from the Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse at Friedrich Schiller University Jena has now shown that these attached microbes follow fundamentally different strategies from free-floating cells in groundwater, with major implications for environmental science and water management.

Previous work on groundwater microbiology has focused mainly on cells suspended in the water column because they are easier to sample and analyze. Early indications, however, suggested that this approach captured only a fraction of the subsurface biosphere. The new study confirms that most microorganisms in the subsurface actually live as biofilms tightly attached to rock, where they can be up to a thousand times more abundant than free-living cells.

To probe this hidden lifestyle, the researchers deployed passive samplers in a natural carbonate aquifer in Germany's Thuringian Hainich region. Over time, microbial communities colonized rock material in the samplers, allowing direct comparison between rock-attached communities and those freely suspended in the same groundwater system. Using modern genome-based techniques, the team analyzed community composition and metabolic potential in both habitats.

The results reveal two sharply contrasting microbial ecosystems coexisting in close physical proximity. Rock-attached communities and free-living communities host very different sets of species and functions. According to first author and doctoral researcher Alisha Sharma, the way microbes live, whether fixed to rock or drifting in water, exerts a stronger influence on community structure than environmental factors such as oxygen availability.

On rock surfaces, microbes form highly specialized communities capable of tapping inorganic energy sources such as iron and sulfur. By oxidizing these compounds, they can fix carbon dioxide and build biomass, effectively turning the subsurface into an active carbon sink. These metabolic capabilities allow rock-bound microbes to play a central role in transforming chemicals and sequestering carbon in the underground.

In contrast, the free-living microorganisms in groundwater appear functionally more constrained. They lack the same breadth of metabolic tools seen in rock-attached communities and contribute less to key processes such as carbon fixation. The researchers argue that focusing solely on planktonic cells leads to a distorted view of how groundwater ecosystems function and evolve over time.

"If we ignore the community attached to rock, we overlook an important functional actor in the groundwater system," explains research group leader Martin Taubert from the Cluster of Excellence. He notes that these attached microorganisms are deeply involved in central chemical processes, particularly the carbon cycle, that shape groundwater quality and geochemistry. Recognizing their role is essential for realistic models of subsurface environments.

The findings carry direct relevance for environmental protection, drinking water safety and climate assessments. Groundwater is one of the world's most important sources of drinking water, and an improved understanding of subsurface microbial processes can refine estimates of natural self-purification and contaminant breakdown. The work also suggests that carbonate rock aquifers may lock away significantly more carbon dioxide than previously assumed, a factor that could influence how natural carbon sinks are represented in climate models.

Beyond their immediate environmental implications, the results contribute to the broader goals of the Balance of the Microverse Cluster of Excellence. The initiative seeks to understand how microbial communities shape their surroundings and how environmental conditions in turn regulate microbial balance. Aquatic geomicrobiologist and cluster speaker Kirsten Kuesel emphasizes that microorganisms act as quiet stabilizers of many natural systems, often without human awareness.

By revealing the distinct strategies of rock-attached and free-living microbes in the subsurface, the study underscores that microbial life underground is not merely a passive backdrop. Instead, it is an active architect of groundwater composition, carbon cycling and ecosystem stability. Unlocking these hidden habitats helps researchers gauge how robust or fragile subsurface systems may be in the face of environmental change.

Research Report:Two worlds beneath: Distinct microbial strategies of the rock-attached and planktonic subsurface biosphere

Zoantharian cousins blur long held divide between Atlantic and Indo Pacific reefs

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 06, 2026 - For decades, marine biogeography has treated the Atlantic and Indo Pacific oceans as distinct biological worlds, with reef communities and coral assemblages thought to share little overlap across the vast divide. Yet a new global analysis of zoantharians, a group of colorful anemone like hexacorals, reveals that these organisms challenge this long standing assumption by showing only weak genetic and morphological differentiation between the two great ocean basins.

The research, published in Frontiers of Biogeography, was led by Dr. Maria "Duda" Santos of the UH Manoa Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology ToBo Lab and the University of the Ryukyus. The project began with what Santos described as an underwater sense of deja vu during her first dive in Okinawa, Japan, after years of studying zoantharians in her native Brazil. "During my first dive in Okinawa, I was surrounded by a multitude of species I had never seen in my homeland of Brazil. But then I saw the zoantharians. They looked exactly like the ones back home the same colors, shapes, and sizes. It was striking," she recalls.

In most reef animal groups, the Indo Pacific hosts roughly an order of magnitude more species than the Atlantic, and lineages separated by continents typically diverge genetically and morphologically over evolutionary timescales. The new study shows that zoantharians do not follow this pattern. Despite being separated by millions of years and continental barriers, many Atlantic and Indo Pacific zoantharian lineages display only narrow genetic divergence and remain remarkably similar in appearance, behavior, and ecological roles.

The authors suggest that zoantharians may be among the ocean's most capable long distance travelers. A key factor appears to be an extended larval phase in which zoantharian larvae can remain viable in open water for more than 100 days, dramatically increasing their potential dispersal range across currents that connect distant regions. This "epic" larval duration allows larvae to cross ocean basins that would normally isolate populations of other reef organisms.

In addition to their long lived larvae, zoantharians may use rafting to bridge the Atlantic Indo Pacific divide. By attaching to floating debris, natural flotsam, or other mobile substrates, colonies can hitchhike across large stretches of ocean that would otherwise act as barriers. Once they reach new coastlines and reef systems, their ability to establish and persist helps maintain connectivity between far flung populations.

The study also points to an unusually slow evolutionary rate as another piece of the puzzle. Zoantharian lineages appear to accumulate genetic changes more slowly than many other reef animals, which means that even populations isolated for long periods can still look and function like close siblings. This combination of high dispersal potential and slow genomic change helps explain why Atlantic and Indo Pacific zoantharians remain so similar despite their geographic separation.

These traits have important consequences for how reefs may change under accelerating climate stress. Traditional framework building stony corals are increasingly vulnerable to warming, acidification, and pollution, leading to degradation and loss of coral dominated habitats in many regions. "In habitats impacted by stress, some zoantharian species can outcompete stony corals. We are seeing phase shifts where reefs once dominated by corals are being taken over by zoantharians. Understanding how they spread helps us forecast what the reefs of the future will look like," says Santos.

As zoantharians colonize disturbed or warming reefs, they can occupy ecological niches vacated by declining stony corals, alter habitat structure, and reshape local biodiversity patterns. The team notes that these changes are not inherently negative but represent a fundamental reorganization of reef ecosystems. Documenting which zoantharian species occur where, and how they respond to environmental change, will therefore be critical for anticipating the emerging biogeography of tropical and temperate seas.

The project brought together researchers from Hawaii, Okinawa, Russia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Indonesia, reflecting the global scale of both zoantharian distributions and the questions at stake. By compiling DNA sequences and occurrence records from locations spanning Mexico to the Philippines, the study produced the first global atlas focused on this often overlooked group of hexacorals. The resulting map captures both tropical and temperate provinces and highlights distinct community assemblages even where genetic differentiation between ocean basins remains weak.

This atlas serves as a baseline for tracking how zoantharian ranges shift as oceans continue to warm and human pressures on coastal ecosystems intensify. Because zoantharians can thrive in environments where classic reef builders struggle, they may become increasingly prominent in future reefscapes, especially in regions repeatedly affected by bleaching, storms, or pollution. The authors emphasize that management and conservation planning will need to consider these dynamics as part of a broader reevaluation of what constitutes a healthy or typical reef under changing climatic conditions.

Research Report:Global biogeography of zoantharians indicates a weak genetic differentiation between the Atlantic and Indo Pacific oceans, and distinct communities in tropical and temperate provinces

'So little we know': in submersibles revealing the deep sea

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Aboard Oceanxplorer, Indonesia (AFP) Jan 28, 2026 - A dome-fronted submersible sinks beneath the waves off Indonesia, heading down nearly 1,000 metres in search of new species, plastic-eating microbes and compounds that could one day make medicines.

This month, AFP boarded one of two submersibles belonging to OceanX, a non-profit backed by billionaire Ray Dalio and his son that brings scientists onto its OceanXplorer ship to study the marine world.

The ship boasts labs for genetic sequencing, a helicopter for aerial surveys and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capable of descending up to 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) under the ocean surface.

Its two submersibles have everything from hydraulic collection arms and suction tubes to high-definition cameras, allowing them to uncover the improbable life found in some of the harshest conditions on Earth.

The ship's latest mission focuses on a seamount chain off Indonesia's Sulawesi island that scientists on board mapped last year.

A new team of Indonesian scientists is now surveying its biodiversity, including with submersible dives that put the researchers right into the environment they are studying.

As the sub dropped below 200 metres, the last traces of light disappeared, and indigo faded into total darkness.

Husna Nugrahapraja, an Indonesian scientist on the mission, admitted feeling "a little bit nervous and anxious" as he descended on his first submersible trip.

It is a "very lonely" environment at first, the assistant professor at Institut Teknologi Bandung told AFP.

The craft's lights offered the only illumination, revealing drifts of "marine snow" -- a shower of debris, including decomposing animals, that falls continuously into the depths and creates the impression of an old television stuck between stations.

Marine life that most people never see floated into view, including delicate comb jellies with pulsing fairy-light illuminations along their sides.

Siphonophores -- largely translucent creatures in fanciful shapes resembling toddlers' drawings -- glowed as they drifted by, and silver, fingernail-sized fish skittered out of the sub's wake.

Finally, Husna said, "We arrive on the seabed... (where) we can see many unique organisms", from delicate sea stars to fronded soft corals.

- 'Quite different' -

OceanXplorer's Neptune submersible is designed for scientific collection and observation, while its Nadir vessel has high-end cameras and lights for media content.

That reflects OceanX's view that compelling images make research more accessible and impactful.

The subs do not go as deep as an ROV, but offer a unique view, explained Dave Pollock, who heads OceanX's submersible team.

"We get a lot of scientists come on who are very sceptical about subs," he told AFP.

"Pretty much without fail every sceptical scientist that comes on board who gets to go on a dive changes their opinion."

The nearly 360-degree view gives them "a totally different perspective" to the flat video fed up to the ship by the ROV.

"It's quite different when you see it yourself," Husna said.

The submersibles also offer unique experiences, including the flashes of light called bioluminescence that many deep-sea animals produce to communicate, for defence, or to attract mates.

The vessel's powerful light beams can be used to elicit the display.

First, all the lights are switched off. Even the internal control board is covered, plunging the craft's occupants into total darkness.

Then the sub flashes its lights several times while those on board close their eyes.

When they open them, a seascape galaxy of stars appears -- the bluish-white flashes of creatures from plankton and jellyfish to shrimp and fish responding to the sub lights.

Pollock, who has spent hundreds of hours diving in submersibles, counts some of the more spectacular "flashback bioluminescence" events as among the most memorable moments in his career.

Submersibles are used in many fields, but many now associate them with the 2023 underwater implosion of the Titan, which killed five people on a trip to explore the Titanic wreck.

Pollock stressed that, unlike Titan, OceanXplorer's vehicles are designed, manufactured and inspected regularly in accordance with industry body DNV.

"The subs are designed safe" and equipped with back-up systems including four days of emergency life support, he said.

- 'So little we know' -

For deeper exploration, the scientists rely on OceanX's ROV, operated from a futuristic-looking "mission control" where two crew members sit in gamer-style armchairs.

A bank of screens shows the largely barren seabed, as an operator uses a multi-jointed joystick to operate the robot's hydraulic arm from thousands of metres above.

It resembles a space mission, with an intrepid rover traversing desolate, distant terrain. But here there are aliens.

At least that is how some of the species encountered appear to the untrained eye.

There's a bone-white lobster, suctioned up for examination at the surface, and a horned sea cucumber whose mast-like spikes collapse into black spaghetti when it arrives on the ship.

And there's a deep-sea hermit crab, living not inside a shell, but a sea star the team can't immediately identify. The crab has laid lurid orange eggs inside its long-dead host.

Not every collection is a success: a delicate red-orange shrimp daintily eludes the suction tube, swirling its long antenna as it swims almost triumphantly beyond reach.

When the ROV returns, there is an excited dash for the samples including seawater, sediment and a forearm-length sea lily coated with dripping orange goo.

Crustacean specialist Pipit Pitriana from Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency is fascinated by the captured lobster, as well as some pearl-sized barnacles she thinks may be new to science.

Large parts of the ocean, particularly the deep sea floor, are not even mapped, let alone explored.

And while a new treaty to protect international waters entered into force this month, the ocean faces threats from plastic pollution and rising temperatures to acidification.

"Our Earth, our sea, is mostly deep sea," Pipit said.

"But... there is so little we know about the biodiversity of the deep sea."

Japan says rare earth found in sediment retrieved on deep-sea mission

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Tokyo (AFP) Feb 2, 2026 - Sediment containing rare earth was retrieved from ocean depths of 6,000 metres (about 20,000 feet) on a Japanese test mission, the government said Monday, as it seeks to curb dependence on China for the valuable minerals.

Japan says the mission was the world's first bid to tap deep sea rare earths at such a depth.

"Details will be analysed, including exactly how much rare earth is contained" in the sample, government spokesman Kei Sato said, calling it "a meaningful achievement both in terms of economic security and comprehensive maritime development".

The sample was collected by a deep-sea scientific drilling boat called the Chikyu that set sail last month for the remote island of Minami Torishima in the Pacific, where surrounding waters are believed to contain a rich trove of valuable minerals.

It comes as China -- by far the world's biggest supplier of rare earths -- ramps up pressure on its neighbour after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Tokyo may react militarily to an attack on Taiwan, which Beijing has vowed to seize control of by force if necessary.

Beijing has blocked exports to Japan of "dual-use" items with potential military uses, fuelling worries in Japan that it could choke supplies of rare earths, some of which are included in China's list of such goods.

Rare earths -- 17 metals difficult to extract from the Earth's crust -- are used in everything from electric vehicles to hard drives, wind turbines and missiles.

The area around Minami Torishima, which is in Japan's economic waters, is estimated to contain more than 16 million tons of rare earths, which the Nikkei business daily says is the third-largest reserve globally.

These rich deposits contain an estimated 730 years' worth of dysprosium, used in high-strength magnets in phones and electric cars, and 780 years' worth of yttrium, used in lasers, the Nikkei said.

- Environmental concerns -

Environmental campaigners warn deep-sea mining threatens marine ecosystems and will disrupt the sea floor.

The issue has become a geopolitical flashpoint, with anxiety growing over a push by US President Donald Trump to fast-track the practice in international waters.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has jurisdiction over the ocean floor outside national waters, is pushing for the adoption of a global code to regulate mining in the ocean depths.

But the Japanese test mission was carried out within its own territorial waters.

"If Japan could successfully extract rare earths around Minami Torishima constantly, it will secure domestic supply chain for key industries," Takahiro Kamisuna, research associate at The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told AFP.

"Likewise, it will be a key strategic asset for Takaichi's government to significantly reduce the supply chain dependence on China."

Beijing has long used its dominance in rare earths for geopolitical leverage, including in its trade war with US President Donald Trump's administration.

China accounts for almost two-thirds of rare earth mining production and 92 percent of global refined output, according to the International Energy Agency.

US finalizes rule for deep-sea mining beyond its waters

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Washington, United States (AFP) Jan 20, 2026 - President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday issued a new rule to fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters, bringing the United States a step closer to unilaterally launching the controversial industry.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 113-page document consolidates what is currently a two-step permitting process -- one for exploration and another for commercial recovery -- into a single review, thus reducing environmental oversight.

It claims authority under the 1980 Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act to govern harvesting of minerals in areas beyond US jurisdiction.

"Over the past decades there has been a vast improvement in the technological capability for deep seabed mining, and the industry has obtained a substantial amount of information from deep seabed exploration activities," a document posted to the Federal Register said, justifying the consolidation.

But Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, pushed back against the idea that scientific understanding of the deep ocean has advanced in leaps and bounds, adding the seabed remains one of the planet's last largely unexplored frontiers, where scientists are only beginning to grasp how ecosystems function.

"By issuing the permit simultaneously, they're committing to exploitation without the information that you would need to evaluate its impacts," she told AFP.

The rule follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last April directing agencies to streamline processes in a push to harvest seabed minerals, including rare earth elements critical to clean energy and defense technologies.

Teeming with mysterious species, the ocean floor has become a coveted frontier for companies and countries seeking access to minerals in high demand for technologies such as electric vehicles.

Swathes of Pacific Ocean seabed are carpeted in potato-sized "polymetallic nodules" containing cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese.

Scientists, however, worry that mining could smother species through sediment plumes or release heavy metals that move up the food chain.

Canadian firm The Metals Company has emerged as a frontrunner in the race, seeking to explore for minerals in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.

That prospect has unsettled the United Nations' International Seabed Authority, which issued a veiled warning about TMC's potential activities last year.

ISA-member countries are deeply divided over how to proceed, with a growing number calling for a moratorium.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said it would be "madness to launch predatory economic action that will disrupt the deep seabed, disrupt biodiversity, destroy it and release irrecoverable carbon sinks -- when we know nothing about it."

The United States is not party to the ISA or to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under which the authority was established in 1994.

Water gets the wine treatment in South African tastings

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Stellenbosch, South Africa (AFP) Jan 29, 2026 - Most tourists to Stellenbosch come for the wine but this small group was here for the water, sampling a selection of the world's finest varieties in an experience new to South Africa.

In a tasting room lined with elegant glass bottles from across the globe, water sommelier Nico Pieterse extolled the qualities and even "emotional connection" of a resource many South Africans take straight from the tap.

"They are mainly award-winning waters," Pieterse said of his collection at his Fine Water Tasting Room, which he describes as the world's first such venue dedicated solely to water.

Around 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Cape Town, Stellenbosch is a major draw for international and domestic tourists, who flock to sample its internationally recognised wines on a variety of tasting menus.

But Pieterse's passion is water and he boasts a "library" of 40 brands drawn from Armenian volcanic springs to ancient Czech glaciers.

Many are from Europe, he told AFP on the sidelines of a tasting, but there is also one from Himalayan springs in Bhutan and another from a mineral water mecca in Mexico.

A bottle of Ice Age glacial water from the Czech mountains contains dazzling specks of 24?carat gold. A bottle from Colombia carries the names of species newly identified in the rainforest.

A tasting session lasting around an hour was a surprise for South African visitor Dere Vermeulen, 19, who normally drinks tap water.

"I am the kind of person who says water is water," she told AFP. "But it was very interesting to actually be able to taste the different flavours in the water - I didn't think I was going to."

- From beer to water -

Pieterse, previously a brewer, developed an interest in water during the Covid?19 pandemic when South Africa banned the sale and distribution of alcohol.

It led him to become one of only two certified water sommeliers in South Africa and fewer than 100 worldwide, he said.

As an international water judge, Pieterse blind?tastes more than 100 still and 100 sparkling waters at an annual fine water summit that draws connoisseurs from around the world.

At his Stellenbosch tasting room, guests sample six waters -- three still and three sparkling -- served in stemware at between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius (57.2 to 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit), while discussing the minerality, "total dissolved solids" and filtration.

Plastic or glass packaging and nitrate levels -- which can indicate pollution at source -- are other factors, Pieterse said, against a backdrop of Stellenbosch's expansive vineyards and warm mountainscapes.

Some bottlers sell tap water purified through reverse?osmosis filtration which removes the minerals and flavour, he said. "It takes everything out of the water so that water is completely dead."

The most expensive item is a German water sold in champagne?style bottles for around 5,000 rands ($310).

Alongside the luxury offerings is a high-mineral South African brand priced on his website at 50 rands for 750 millilitres.

Tap water is generally considered safe to drink in South Africa but -- in one of the most unequal countries in the world -- just 45 percent of households had piped drinking water in their dwellings in 2023, according to national statistics.

Another 30 percent were able to drink from a tap in their yards, while others depended on communal taps and rainwater tanks.

Failing infrastructure causes regular supply disruptions and has sparked angry protests by communities forced to rely on water tanks brought in by municipalities or NGOs.

The water-stressed nation has also been through severe droughts and periods of low rainfall with entire towns warned their taps could run dry.

"Being in a country where water is already not readily available, it's important to showcase and educate about water and its scarcity," said Pieterse.

"We have to add value to water, so people take care of it."

Lunar soil study limits late meteorite role in supplying Earth oceans

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 26, 2026 - A long standing idea in planetary science is that water rich meteorites arriving late in Earth history could have delivered a major share of the planet's water. A new study that mines the Moon's impact history now argues that this late delivery pathway could only have supplied a small fraction of Earth's oceans.

In work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Tony Gargano at the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the University of New Mexico used high precision triple oxygen isotope measurements on a large suite of Apollo lunar regolith samples. Earth has erased most of its early bombardment record through tectonics and crustal recycling, but the Moon preserves a continuously accessible archive in its regolith, the loose layer of debris produced and reworked by impacts over billions of years.

Since the Apollo missions, researchers have tried to decode that archive using metal loving siderophile elements that are abundant in meteorites but scarce in the Moon's silicate crust. That approach is complicated because regolith is a challenging mixture. Impacts can melt, vaporize, and repeatedly rework material, while post impact geological processes can separate metal from silicate, making it hard to reconstruct the type and amount of impactor material.

"The lunar regolith, which is a collection of loose 'soil' and broken rock at the surface, acts like a long term mixing layer," said Gargano. "It captures impact debris, stirs it in, and preserves those additions for immense spans of time. That is why it is such a powerful archive. It lets us study a time averaged record of what was hitting the Earth Moon system."

The new study takes a different approach by using oxygen, the dominant element by mass in most rocks, and its triple isotope fingerprint to separate two signals that usually get tangled in lunar soil. These are the addition of meteorite derived material and the isotopic effects from impact driven vaporization. By measuring offsets in the oxygen isotope composition of regolith, the team finds that at least about 1 percent by mass of the regolith reservoir consists of impactor derived material, best explained by carbon rich meteorites that were partially vaporized on impact.

"Triple oxygen isotopes give us a more direct and quantitative way to approach the problem. Oxygen is the dominant element in most rocks, and the triple isotope framework helps us distinguish true mixing between different reservoirs from the isotopic effects of impact driven vaporization," said Gargano. "In practice, that lets us isolate an impactor fingerprint from a regolith that has a complicated history, with fewer assumptions and a clearer chain from measurement to interpretation."

The team translated these impactor fractions into bounds on water delivery for both the Moon and Earth, expressed in Earth ocean equivalents. For the Moon, the implied delivery since roughly 4 billion years ago is tiny when scaled to Earth's oceans. However, while small compared to Earth's water inventory, this contribution can still be meaningful for the Moon because its accessible water is concentrated in small, cold trapped reservoirs that are important resources for future human presence, including life support, radiation shielding, and fuel.

The researchers then extended the same accounting to Earth, using a commonly applied scaling in which our planet receives substantially more impactor material than the Moon. Even if Earth experienced around 20 times the impactor flux and under extreme assumptions about a thick megaregolith, the cumulative water delivery from these impactors reaches only a few percent of one Earth ocean at most. Independent estimates indicate several ocean mass equivalents of water in Earth, making it difficult for late delivery of water rich meteorites to be the dominant source of the planet's water.

"The lunar regolith is one of the rare places we can still interpret a time integrated record of what was hitting Earth's neighborhood for billions of years," said Gargano. "The oxygen isotope fingerprint lets us pull an impactor signal out of a mixture that's been melted, vaporized, and reworked countless times. The main takeaway from our study is that Earth's water budget is hard, if not impossible, to explain if we only consider a single, late delivery pathway from water rich impactors from the outer solar system. Even though some meteorite types carry a lot of water, their broader chemical and isotopic fingerprints are quite exotic relative to Earth. Habitability models have to satisfy such empirical constraints, and our study adds a constraint that future theories will need to reproduce."

"Our results don't say meteorites delivered no water," added coauthor Simon. "They say the Moon's long term record makes it very hard for late meteorite delivery to be the dominant source of Earth's oceans."

Gargano framed the work as part of a scientific lineage that began with Apollo. "I'm part of the next generation of Apollo scientists people who didn't fly the missions, but who were trained on the samples and the questions Apollo made possible," he said. "The value of the Moon is that it gives us ground truth real material we can measure in the lab and use to anchor what we infer from meteorites and telescopes."

"Apollo samples are the reference point for comparing the Moon to the broader Solar System," Gargano added. "When we put lunar soils and meteorites on the same oxygen isotope scale, we're testing ideas about what kinds of bodies were supplying water to the inner Solar System. That's ultimately a question about why Earth became habitable, and how the ingredients for life were assembled here in the first place."

Apollo samples matter because the Moon preserves the impact story across deep time in a way Earth does not. The lunar record does not just tell scientists about the Moon. It preserves an accessible history of the impact environment of the inner solar system that helped set the boundary conditions under which Earth became habitable, and the rocks collected decades ago are still capable of changing how researchers think about the origin of Earth's water and the conditions that made life possible.

"What modern techniques add to this amazing legacy of scientific exploration is precision and interpretive power. We can now resolve subtle isotopic signals that allow quantitative tests of formation and habitability models," said Gargano. "That is why Apollo science keeps evolving. The samples are the same, but our ability to interrogate them, and the questions we can ask of them, are fundamentally better."

Beyond the scientific findings, Gargano is also focused on training and outreach that make planetary science tangible to the next generation. "At UNM, I have been training Albuquerque high schoolers in planetary science and geochemistry, including senior Brooklyn Bird and junior Violet Delu from the Bosque School," he said. "These students are getting hands on training in geochemistry using UNM's unique collection of Astromaterials, and they are learning the physical craft of laboratory science how to prepare and handle samples, how to make high quality measurements, and how to think clearly about uncertainty and reproducibility."

He emphasized that the deeper lesson is the transformation that happens when a student realizes they can hold a piece of another world, make a measurement, and extract meaning from it. Students learn how a chemical signal becomes a geologic story and how that story scales up into an explanation for how a planetary body evolved. Experiences like that build confidence, technical skill, and a sense of belonging in a field that can otherwise feel out of reach.

Bird and Delu will present their independent research projects at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference and will serve as educators to their peers and younger students through Bosque School outreach events. Gargano sees this as a model to expand to other regions so that more underserved students can gain access to world class research experiences and develop geochemistry skills that open doors internationally.

Research Report:Constraints on the impactor flux to the Earth-Moon system from oxygen isotopes of the lunar regolith

OceanXplorer: a 'one-stop shop' for marine research

Sat, 07 FEB 2026 10:20:54 AEST

Aboard Oceanxplorer, Indonesia (AFP) Jan 26, 2026 - This month, AFP reported from OceanXplorer, a high-tech marine research vessel owned by billionaire-backed non-profit OceanX, as it studied seamounts off Indonesia.

The ship pairs advanced scientific research with high-end media content to make marine biology and conservation accessible.

- A one-stop shop -

A former oil exploration ship, OceanXplorer belongs to OceanX, which was founded by wealthy investor Ray Dalio and his son Mark.

It was retrofitted with everything from laboratories for genetic sequencing to helicopters for aerial surveys.

It is a "researcher's dream", according to Sekar Mira, a cetacean specialist on board from Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

There are two submersibles -- one with 8K cameras for ultra-high-definition media content, and a science vessel equipped to collect samples from 1,000 metres under the sea.

For deeper exploration, there is a remotely-operated vehicle capable of diving to 6,000 metres, and the ship also has mapping radar, bongo nets for capturing plankton and a CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) instrument.

"It is essentially a one-stop shop for ocean science," said mission lead Andrew Craig. "There's nothing else like it in the world."

- Rotating science teams -

OceanXplorer has been at sea almost continuously since 2021. AFP joined as it surveyed biodiversity on a deep-sea mountain chain off Sulawesi island.

Each mission brings in local government and research institutions, and a new team of local scientists.

This time they include "megafauna" specialist Sekar, researching whales and dolphins, and genetics and molecular biotechnology expert Husna Nugrahapraja, who is "bioprospecting" compounds for new medicines.

"We will extract the DNA and then we want to do what is called metagenomic sequencing... and then we try to mine the data," said Husna, an assistant professor at Institut Teknologi Bandung.

Being able to do all that on board is "really impressive," he added.

BRIN marine biologist Nur Fitriah Afianti scrutinises plastic waste from thousands of metres below the surface for helpful microbes.

"Maybe the microbes can digest the plastic waste. Maybe, I hope," she said.

- eDNA work -

The visiting scientists are supported by OceanX experts like Larissa Fruehe, a specialist in environmental DNA (eDNA).

She calls it "the coolest thing ever" because of its potential to detect species long after they have left an environment.

"Every organism is releasing their DNA into their respective environment" in the form of feathers, hair, scales, mucus or even faeces, Fruehe said.

Filtering those traces from soil, air or water paints a picture of what has passed through.

OceanXplorer can "run a whole eDNA workflow in its entirety, from sampling to actual bioinformatic analysis", Fruehe said.

Among those working with eDNA on board is coelacanth specialist Alex Masengi.

He is hunting for signs of the ancient fish at 900 metres, far below its known range.

- Hollywood touches -

OceanX brought in Hollywood designers to make the ship telegenic, with a futuristic "mission control" and customisable lighting for optimal filming conditions.

It is a deliberate attempt to make marine science compelling for a mass audience, including OceanX's four million TikTok followers.

OceanX does not advertise the ship's cost or its operating budget, but its parent body's 2024 US tax filing reported over $44 million in expenses.

Much of that comes from the Dalio family, though outside grants help fund missions too.

Privately funded science can be controversial, but OceanX notes that its research is all publicly accessible, and it partners with government and institutions often unable to expend their limited resources on marine science.

- Research and filming firsts -

OceanXplorer trips have generated dozens of scientific papers, on everything from deep-sea shark behaviour in the Red Sea to whales and dolphins off Indonesia.

Its cameras have filmed rare footage of groups of coelacanths near Indonesia, and observed newly discovered brine pools in the Red Sea.

In between missions, students are invited on board as part of OceanX's education mission.

"It's about conservation, it's about education and it's about exploration," said Craig.

"They want to go to new places, they want to explore, and they want to bring back that knowledge and make it available to the public."

'So little we know': in submersibles revealing the deep sea
Aboard Oceanxplorer, Indonesia (AFP) Jan 26, 2026 - A dome-fronted submersible sinks beneath the waves off Indonesia, heading down nearly 1,000 metres in search of new species, plastic-eating microbes and compounds that could one day make medicines.