Mars Orbiter Captures Rare View of Ancient Volcano Poking Above the Clouds

Floating in orbit above Mars, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter captured a panorama of the Red Planet's biggest volcanoes, Arsia Mons, peeking over a sea of clouds. The picturesque moment offers an exceptionally rare view of a Martian volcano, showing the landform at an angle in space that captures the planet's horizon.
'We picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds. And it didn't disappoint,' Jonathon Hill, the operations lead for Odyssey's camera and a mission planner at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, said in a statement. THEMIS can view Mars in both visible and infrared light.
Launched in 2001, Odyssey has been circling around Mars for over two decades, studying the Martian surface. But in 2023, the orbiter began taking breathtaking panoramic views of the Martian horizon. Because THEMIS can't pivot to get these stunning views, the orbiter flips on its side, rotating a full 90 degrees. That way, it captured Mars' 'limb,' the edge of the planet's horizon. This is THEMIS' fourth limb observation since 2023.
Odyssey captured the image on May 2, just before dawn. In it, Arsia Mons stands 12 miles (20 kilometers) high and measures 70 miles (450 km) in diameter. For comparison, Earth's tallest volcano, Mauna Loa, stands 6 miles (9 km) above the seafloor and measures 75 miles (121 km) in diameter.
Arsia Mons is also one of Mars' cloudiest volcanoes and the southernmost of the three Tharsis volcanoes that form Tharsis Montes, or Tharsis Mountains. These mountains are often surrounded by water ice clouds, particularly early in the morning. The clouds form when air expands as it blows up the sides of the mountain and then rapidly cools.
This view also allows scientists to study Martian weather and phenomena like dust clouds and how they change over the course of the seasons. Odyssey might be able to capture a few more of these panoramas before its eventual retirement, likely at the end of this year.

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Medscape

7 minutes ago

• Medscape

EGFR+ NSCLC: Experts Weigh Risk vs Reward at ASCO 2025

This transcript has been edited for clarity. Coral Olazagasti, MD: Hello. My name is Coral Olazagasti, and I'm a thoracic oncologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. Joining me today is my friend and colleague, Maria Velez, a clinical instructor at UCLA, and also my other friend and colleague, Ana Velázquez Mañana, who's an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF. Today we are super excited because we are speaking about the ASCO 2025 Annual Meeting here in Chicago. We just came out from the oral abstracts for the metastatic setting for non-small cell lung cancer and we want to share some of the data that we learned. We want to start the discussion here today about EGFR -mutant disease in the second-line setting. We're going to start with Maria. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the HERTHENA-Lung02 study? Maria A. Velez, MD, MS: Sure. HERTHENA-Lung02 was a study that evaluated HER3-DXd, which is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), in the second-line setting for patients with previously treated EGFR -sensitizing mutations. It was an open-label study where patients received either the HER3-DXd or the investigator's choice chemotherapy, and the primary endpoint was median progression-free survival. The results showed that the median progression-free survival for patients who received HER3-DXd was 5.8 months whereas the median for the chemotherapy arm was 5.4 months. Even though it was a statistically significant difference, it was not a very clinically meaningful difference, with a huge implication that 100% of the patients in this study had treatment-related adverse events and some patients experienced interstitial lung disease (ILD). All in all, taking these data into account, even though there's a huge need in the treatment landscape for second-line EGFR -mutant patients, I think this ADC did not really show a substantial enough clinically meaningful benefit and had a large amount of toxicity. Olazagasti: Not to say that this study didn't show any overall survival (OS) benefit. We're talking about a drug that's not really giving patients a longer life and is also giving many side effects, like you mentioned — a large amount of discontinuation due to ILD, and so much toxicity without that benefit there. I think we'll table that regimen for now. Do you agree? Velez: I agree. Ana I. Velázquez Mañana, MD, MSc: I agree. Clearly, it's disappointing to see the results of not beating chemotherapy in the second-line setting, but I do think that potentially there is a role in the third line or afterwards. We know that patients are going to be getting chemotherapy and amivantamab in the second-line setting. There is a need for further drugs and interventions in the third line if patients don't have other AGAs [actionable oncogenic alterations] or other drivers that we can use targeted therapies for. I am hesitant to give up completely on the drug. I do agree it's quite toxic and very disappointing to unfortunately see these results in the second line. Olazagasti: I agree. Moving on to the next study — Ana, do you want to talk to us about the SACHI study? Velazquez Mañana: The SACHI study was an open-label, randomized trial of savolitinib plus osimertinib vs platinum doublet chemotherapy in patients who, post EGFR TKI, had progressed in the second line and had a MET amplification. We know that MET amplifications are an extremely common mechanism of resistance to EGFR TKI-targeted therapies. Interestingly, in this study, which brings a little bit of heterogeneity, they included patients treated with first- and second-generation EGFR TKIsas well as those treated with third-generation TKIs like osimertinib, which would be our standard of care. They did look to make sure those were T790M negative, those treated with earlier generations. Interestingly, the results on the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) showed a benefit of 8.2 months in the combination vs 4.5 months in patients treated with doublet chemotherapy. That [benefit] was maintained in both patients treated with earlier-generation TKIs as well as those treated with third-generation TKIs. It also had some efficacy data and overall response rates of 63.2% vs 36.2%. Definitely, as we know, using a MET-targeted therapy is helpful. We already know from the United States that they use an approval in the second line of chemotherapy and amivantamab. That approach leads to responses in patients after EGFR TKIs. I think it's an interesting approach, obviously, to think of sparing patients from chemo in that second line and combining two TKIs, but we have to see if that is better than chemo with amivantamab would've been, which would've been our standard of care here. With savolitinib, we know what the adverse events are. It's a drug that's been approved in China now for years. It's not used in the United States, but I think, based on these studies, it's interesting to see what other studies will come in the future and whether this is a potential approach for us to use. Olazagasti: Definitely it's interesting. I feel like EGFR is the cool kid on the block now. We have so many options and so many studies looking into it, and it's just interesting to see what the future holds and what else is going to come into play. Continuing down the line of the EGFR second-line studies, I'm going to talk about the OptiTROP-Lung03 study. This study uses sacituzumab tirumotecan. It's a phase 3 study of EGFR mutants. Patients had to receive not only TKI but also platinum therapy, and they were randomized into using sacituzumab tirumotecan — we're going to call it sac-TMT because this is very hard to pronounce — vs docetaxel. The primary endpoints of the study were overall response rates, and secondary endpoints were PFS and OS. The study showed that the overall response rate was 45.1% vs 15.6% in the docetaxel arm. Also, there was a PFS benefit. The median PFS was 6.9 compared to only 2.8 in the chemo arm. Even though the median OS is still ongoing, with the median not reached yet, at 12 months there was an OS of 72.8% compared to 43.2%. I think this drug has been approved in China, and I know that in December it received breakthrough FDA designation in the United States. We'll see, again, what the future holds. Do you have any thoughts about this? Velazquez Mañana: We've been seeing from the different TROP2 ADCs that clearly they have a role in EGFR -driven lung cancer. I think it's exciting to see another one. Unfortunately, there are drugs that have many toxicities, so they are hard to manage for patients. Again, on this one I am a little bit conflicted with what the comparator arm is, and one that not necessarily would be our current standard of care. So we are having a large amount of new development and newer drugs, but because of how long it takes to run trials and the newer approvals that come, it's hard to make comparisons and decisions of which ones you should select and the timing of them. Hopefully, we'll get more data in the future. Olazagasti: I think that's the general consensus. And the dilemma that we have right now in the EGFR space, because we have so many approved options, is that there's really not a great sequential treatment. It's not really a one-size-fits-all approach. Some people use osimertinib alone in the first line. Some people use the FLAURA2 study with osimertinib and chemo. Some people prefer the MARIPOSA regimen. These are all pretty decent options, and so bringing these other drugs into the second- and third-line setting, how do we do the sequencing? I think that's really where the dilemma and the problems are going to come about. Institutions may have different orders and different preferences, but I think in these situations it's also important to take each patient into consideration individually because, like we have already mentioned, it's not only about the treatment and then the benefits, but also the side-effect profile. This one in particular didn't have any ILDs compared to in HERTHENA where they had a high rate, but we have to really look into toxicities because it's not only survival for patients and PFS; it's really about quality of life, too. With this great discussion, I think we're going to wrap up for today. 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Gizmodo

8 minutes ago

• Gizmodo

Troubling Case Links Vaping to Aggressive Lung Cancer

Vaping might be safer than cigarette smoking, but they carry their own health risks. A New Jersey man's electronic cigarette habit likely contributed to his fast-spreading, fatal lung cancer, his doctors say. Doctors at the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City detailed the tragic death this month in the American Journal of Case Reports. The 51-year-old former smoker and longtime vaper developed an aggressive lung cancer that killed him just months after diagnosis. Though a causative link isn't confirmed, the authors say more studies are needed to figure out vaping's cancer risk. According to the report, the man visited a local hospital sometime in 2020 after he started to cough up blood. During the prior month, he had also been experiencing symptoms of weight loss, chest discomfort, and shortness of breath. Tests soon revealed that he had a form of non-small cell lung carcinoma, specifically determined to be squamous cell carcinoma. The cancer had already started to spread and break off into pieces that reached the heart, making surgery unfeasible. He was discharged and quickly placed on chemotherapy, but to no avail. The man's health continued to rapidly deteriorate and he died three months after his diagnosis. The man had a history of cigarette smoking, the equivalent of 10 pack-years (meaning he smoked roughly a pack a day for 10 years). But he told the doctors he quit in 2009 and switched exclusively to e-cigarettes for the next 11 years. He regularly received lung and heart check-ups, and his last chest X-ray two years earlier was normal, suggesting his cancer only recently emerged. Because of the aggressive and non-responsive nature of the cancer, his relatively young age (most cases are caught in people over 65) and the lack of recent cigarette use, the doctors suspect that vaping probably played a part in his death. 'While causality cannot be established, the case highlights a potential association between [vaping] and malignancy,' they wrote. People have gotten seriously sick from vaping before, though usually under specific circumstances. In 2019, for instance, a mysterious lung disease that affected thousands of people in the U.S. was ultimately traced back to toxic additives primarily used in THC-containing vapes (while the initial outbreak did subside, these cases still appear occasionally). Other chemicals used to flavor vapes have also been tied to rare lung illnesses. But this appears to be one of the first case reports to explicitly link vaping and lung cancer. Other isolated reports have found a connection between vaping and mouth cancer. Some studies have also suggested that people who both vape and smoke (so-called dual users) have a higher risk of lung cancer than people who only smoke. At the same time, the overall research to date doesn't appear to show a significant added risk of lung cancer among people who only vape and have never smoked. And studies have also long found that vaping is less harmful in general than smoking. Given that this case is only one anecdote, the doctors aren't pushing for formal changes to screening guidelines just yet. But they are calling for further studies to untangle the unique dangers that vaping may pose.

Yahoo

14 minutes ago

• Yahoo

It's Official: Scientists Confirmed What's Inside Our Moon

Well, the verdict is in. The Moon is not made of green cheese after all. A thorough investigation published in May 2023 found that the inner core of the Moon is, in fact, a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron. This, researchers hope, will help settle a long debate about whether the Moon's inner heart is solid or molten, and lead to a more accurate understanding of the Moon's history – and, by extension, that of the Solar System. "Our results," wrote a team led by astronomer Arthur Briaud of the French National Centre for Scientific Research in France, "question the evolution of the Moon magnetic field thanks to its demonstration of the existence of the inner core and support a global mantle overturn scenario that brings substantial insights on the timeline of the lunar bombardment in the first billion years of the Solar System." Watch the video below for a summary on what they found: Probing the interior composition of objects in the Solar System is most effectively accomplished through seismic data. The way acoustic waves generated by quakes move through and reflect from material inside a planet or moon can help scientists create a detailed map of the object's interior. We happen to have lunar seismic data collected by the Apollo mission, but its resolution is too low to accurately determine the inner core's state. We know there is a fluid outer core, but what it encompasses remains under debate. Models of a solid inner core and an entirely fluid core work equally well with the Apollo data. To figure it out once and for all, Briaud and his colleagues collected data from space missions and lunar laser-ranging experiments to compile a profile of various lunar characteristics. These include the degree of its deformation by its gravitational interaction with Earth, the variation in its distance from Earth, and its density. Next, they conducted modeling with various core types to find which matched most closely with the observational data. They made several interesting findings. Firstly, the models that most closely resembled what we know about the Moon describe active overturn deep inside the lunar mantle. This means that denser material inside the Moon falls towards the center, and less dense material rises upwards. This activity has long been proposed as a way of explaining the presence of certain elements in volcanic regions of the Moon. The team's research adds another point in the "for" tally of evidence. And they found that the lunar core is very similar to that of Earth – with an outer fluid layer and a solid inner core. According to their modeling, the outer core has a radius of about 362 kilometers (225 miles), and the inner core has a radius of about 258 kilometers (160 miles). That's about 15 percent of the entire radius of the Moon. The inner core, the team found, also has a density of about 7,822 kilograms per cubic meter. That's very close to the density of iron. Curiously, in 2011 a team led by NASA Marshall planetary scientist Renee Weber found a similar result using what were then state-of-the-art seismological techniques on Apollo data to study the lunar core. They found evidence of a solid inner core with a radius of about 240 kilometers, and a density of about 8,000 kilograms per cubic meter. Their results, Briaud and his team say, are confirmation of those earlier findings, and constitute a pretty strong case for an Earth-like lunar core. And this has some interesting implications for the Moon's evolution. We know that not long after it formed, the Moon had a powerful magnetic field, which started to decline about 3.2 billion years ago. Such a magnetic field is generated by motion and convection in the core, so what the lunar core is made of is deeply relevant to how and why the magnetic field disappeared. Given humanity's hope to return to the Moon in relatively short order, perhaps we won't have long to wait for seismic verification of these findings. The research has been published in Nature. A version of this article was first published in May 2023. Jaw-Dropping Explosions on The Sun Captured in First NASA PUNCH Images SpaceX Starship Explodes in Towering Fireball Astronomers Uncover a Massive Shaft of Missing Matter