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Ammon
15-05-2025
- Science
- Ammon
Gravity study shows why the moon's two sides look so different
Ammon News - An exhaustive examination of lunar gravity using data obtained by two NASA robotic spacecraft is offering new clues about why the two sides of the moon - the one perpetually facing Earth and the other always facing away - look so different. The data from the U.S. space agency's GRAIL, or Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, mission indicates that the moon's deep interior has an asymmetrical structure, apparently caused by intense volcanism on its nearside billions of years ago that helped shape its surface features. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. The researchers discovered that the lunar nearside flexes slightly more than the farside during its elliptical orbit around Earth thanks to our planet's gravitational influence - a process called tidal deformation. This indicates differences in the two sides of the lunar interior, they said, specifically in the geological layer called the mantle. "Our study shows that the moon's interior is not uniform: the side facing Earth - the nearside - is warmer and more geologically active deep down than the farside," said Ryan Park, supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, opens new tab. The moon's nearside is covered by vast plains, called mare, formed from molten rock that cooled and solidified billions of years ago. Its farside has much more rugged terrain, with few plains. Some scientists have hypothesized that intense volcanism within the nearside that caused radioactive, heat-generating elements to accumulate on that side of the mantle drove the surface differences observed today. The new findings offer the strongest evidence yet to support this notion. The researchers estimated that the nearside mantle on average is about 180-360 degrees Fahrenheit (100-200 degrees Celsius) hotter than the farside, with the thermal difference perhaps sustained by radioactive decay of the elements thorium and titanium on the nearside. "The moon's nearside and farside look very different, as shown by differences in topography, crustal thickness and the amount of heat-producing elements inside," Park said. The moon's diameter of about 2,160 miles (3,475 km) is a bit more than a quarter of Earth's diameter. The lunar mantle is the layer located beneath the crust and above the core, spanning a depth about 22-870 miles (35-1,400 km) under the surface. The mantle makes up roughly 80% of the moon's mass and volume and is composed mostly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene, similar to Earth's mantle. "The fact that the detected asymmetry in the mantle matches the pattern of the surface geology - for instance, differences in the abundance of the approximately 3-4 billion-year-old mare basalts (volcanic rock) between the nearside and the farside - suggests that processes which drove ancient lunar volcanism are active today," said Caltech computational planetary scientist and study co-author Alex Berne, affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on the design of gravity sensors for missions to the outer solar system. The researchers spent years analyzing data from GRAIL's Ebb and Flow spacecraft, which orbited the moon from December 2011 to December 2012. "Our study delivers the most detailed and accurate gravitational map of the moon to date," Park said. "This enhanced gravity map is a critical foundation for developing lunar Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) systems, which are essential for the success of future lunar exploration missions. By improving our understanding of the moon's gravity field, it contributes to establishing a precise lunar reference frame and time system, enabling safer and more reliable navigation for spacecraft and surface operations," Park added. The same approach employed here using gravity data to assess the lunar interior, the researchers said, could be applied to other bodies in the solar system such as Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Ganymede, two worlds of interest in the search for potential life beyond Earth. In the meantime, the new findings add to the understanding of Earth's eternal companion. "The moon plays a vital role in stabilizing Earth's rotation and generating ocean tides, which influence natural systems and daily rhythms," Park said. "Our knowledge of the moon has expanded through human and robotic missions that have revealed details about its surface and interior, yet many questions about its deep structure and history remain. As our closest neighbor, the moon continues to be an important focus of scientific discovery." Reuters
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Teva Pharm first-quarter profit rise tops estimates
The logo of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is displayed at the company headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab Companies Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd Follow JERUSALEM, May 7 (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( , opens new tab reported a slightly larger than expected rise in first-quarter profit, helped by strong sales gains in a trio of its branded drugs to treat migraines, Huntington's disease and schizophrenia. The world's largest generic drugmaker said on Wednesday it earned 52 cents per diluted share, excluding one-time items, in the January-March quarter, up from 48 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue rose 2% to $3.89 billion. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Analysts had forecast earnings of 46 cents per share ex-items for the Israel-based company on revenue of $3.99 billion, LSEG I/B/E/S data showed. Teva said that confirmed U.S. tariffs were expected to have an immaterial financial impact. Reporting by Steven Scheer, Editing by Louise Heavens Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab Share X Facebook Linkedin Email Link Purchase Licensing Rights
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
India's Alembic Pharma's quarterly profit drops on tax expense
May 6 (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Alembic Pharmaceuticals ( opens new tab reported a 12% fall in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, hurt by a deferred tax expense that offset the impact of strong sales in its key U.S. and domestic markets. The company's consolidated profit fell to 1.57 billion rupees (nearly $19 million) in the quarter ended March 31, from 1.78 billion rupees a year ago. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. It recorded a deferred tax expense of 146.7 million rupees compared with a tax gain of 217.5 million rupees a year earlier. Its profit before tax climbed 5%. Alembic Pharma's sales in the U.S. climbed 20%, while sales in India rose 8%. This drove its overall revenue 17% higher to 17.70 billion rupees. KEY CONTEXT A large chunk of revenues for most Indian generic drugmakers comes from the U.S. While fierce competition in North America's generic drugs market has been weighing on some firms' margins, generic drugmakers are also under threat from U.S. President Donald Trump tariff plans for the sector. PEER COMPARISON * The mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell ** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE -- All data from LSEG -- $1 = 84.3825 Indian rupees
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Dialysis firm FMC tops market expectations in 1st quarter
May 6 (Reuters) - World's largest dialysis specialist Fresenius Medical Care ( opens new tab reported first-quarter results above market expectations on Tuesday, as revenue grew organically in all its segments. The German company's revenue was 4.88 billion euros ($5.53 billion) in the quarter, slightly above analysts' average estimate of 4.85 billion in a poll compiled by Vara Research. That was up from 4.73 billion euros in the same period in 2024. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. Operating income adjusted for special items grew to 457 million euros from 403 million euros last year, beating analysts' expectations of 446 million euros. While patient treatment in the U.S. took a hit from missed appointments in February due to high numbers of flu and cold cases, analysts were expecting those numbers to improve through March and April. FMC, which made 67% of its quarterly revenue through dialysis procedures in the United States, said payments from medical insurers and favourable U.S. dollar to euro exchange rate offset the decrease in dialysis days. The dialysis provider for 300,000 patients worldwide confirmed its guidance for 2025 and continues to expect market treatment growth in the U.S. to be more than 0.5% this year. ($1 = 0.8831 euros)
Reuters
05-05-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Trump to continue Biden's court defense of abortion drug mifepristone
Summary May 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Monday pushed forward in defending U.S. rules easing access to the abortion drug mifepristone from a legal challenge that began during Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration. The U.S. Department of Justice in a brief filed in Texas federal court urged a judge to dismiss the lawsuit by three Republican-led states on procedural grounds. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. While the filing does not discuss the merits of the states' case, it suggests the Trump administration is in no rush to drop the government's defense of mifepristone, used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions. Missouri, Kansas and Idaho claim the U.S. Food and Drug Administration acted improperly when it eased restrictions on mifepristone, including by allowing it to be prescribed by telemedicine and dispensed by mail. The Justice Department and the office of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump said while campaigning last year that he did not plan to ban or restrict access to mifepristone. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News in February that Trump has asked for a study on the safety of abortion pills and has not made a decision on whether to tighten restrictions on them. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid by anti-abortion groups and doctors to restrict access to the drug, finding that they lacked legal standing to challenge the FDA regulations. Those plaintiffs dropped their case after the high court ruling, but U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, allowed the states to intervene and continue to pursue the lawsuit. The U.S. Justice Department moved to dismiss their claims days before Trump took office in January. In Monday's filing, government lawyers repeated their arguments that Texas is not the proper venue for the lawsuit and that the states lack standing to sue because they are not being harmed by the challenged regulations. "Regardless of the merits of the States' claims, the States cannot proceed in this Court," they wrote. The three states are challenging FDA actions that loosened restrictions on the drug in 2016 and 2021, including allowing for medication abortions at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven, and for mail delivery of the drug without a woman first seeing a clinician in-person. The original plaintiffs initially had sought to reverse FDA approval of mifepristone, but that aspect was rebuffed by a lower court. The Republican-led states have argued they have standing to sue because their Medicaid health insurance programs will likely have to pay to treat patients who have suffered complications from using mifepristone. They have also said they should be allowed to remain in Texas even without the original plaintiffs because it would be inefficient to send the case to another court after nearly more than two years of litigation.
