Museomics Clarifies the Classification of (Asphodelaceae), the Iconic African Tree Aloes.

Arborescent succulent plants are regarded as keystone and indicator species in desert ecosystems due to their large stature and long lifespans. Tree aloes, the genus , are icons of the southern African deserts yet have proved elusive subjects due to the difficulty of obtaining material of known provenance for comparative study. Consequently, evolutionary relationships among representatives of the unusual arborescent life form have remained unclear until now.

New experimental capability to investigate the hypervelocity micrometeoroid bombardment of cryogenic surfaces.

Ice is prevalent throughout the solar system and beyond. Though the evolution of many of these icy surfaces is highly dependent on associated micrometeoroid impact phenomena, experimental investigation of these impacts has been extremely limited, especially at the impactor speeds encountered in space. The dust accelerator facility at the Institute for Modeling Plasmas, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT) of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute has developed a novel cryogenic system that will facilitate future study of hypervelocity impacts into ice and icy regolith.