Radar

It was seven years ago that we first heard about Garmin's Varia Radar tail light, which warns cyclists of vehicles approaching from behind. After adding smartphone compatibility in 2020, Garmin has now put a camera in the device.

A new type of radar can measure objects down to centimeters. The new technique uses a photonic system to generate much higher bandwidth signals, enabling radar that can detect smaller objects, and even monitor patient vital signs in hospitals.

Recent studies reported the discovery of lakes of liquid water below the polar ice caps on Mars, but others later refuted the find. Fueling the debate are two new independent studies, which have reached opposite conclusions.

Cannondale's Synapse has always been a fairly well-regarded road bike, but the latest version sports a little something extra. It's called the SmartSense system, and it's designed to help keep riders from being struck by cars.

In 2018 astronomers announced the discovery of lakes of liquid water on Mars at the south pole. Sadly, a trio of new papers refutes the claim, with new experiments suggesting that the “water” signal was more likely produced by frozen clay instead.

Many cars are now equipped with pedestrian-detecting radar systems, but those systems can still be blocked by obstacles such as buildings or other vehicles. A new setup is intended to get around that problem, by taking the radar to the streets.

Astronomers have captured stunning new high-resolution radar images of the Moon, using an experimental instrument on a ground telescope. This proof of concept test paves the way for a more powerful radar telescope that could see as far as Neptune.

Home to oceans of liquid methane, Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most fascinating bodies in the solar system. Now scientists have used radar to probe the depth of its largest sea, Kraken Mare, and estimated it to be at least 300 m deep.

Ordinarily, if you want to know how soil properties change at different depths, you have to extract soil core samples. Scientists have now determined that the same data can be obtained much more easily, using ground-penetrating radar.

Israeli company Vayyar says it can replace a bunch of car interior sensors with a single, hidden "4D radar" unit the size of a credit card, saving significant development costs while unlocking a range of upcoming safety features.

Self-driving cars typically use both LiDAR and radar to detect obstacles on the road ahead, yet neither system is adept at identifying vehicles through fog. Now, though, engineers have discovered that radar is good at the task if it's "doubled up."

By analyzing data from radar and optical telescopes, scientists have given radar the ability to make observations of meteors that burn up in the Earth's atmosphere that have previously only possible using optical telescopes.