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When the Perseverance rover lands on Mars in February 2021, it won’t be alone.
In addition to the Ingenuity helicopter, the rover carried a suite of scientific instruments designed to search for ancient signs of life.
And tucked away in its chassis, Percy also had MOXIE – the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment.
Tool Successfully produced oxygen More than two years from Mars’ carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.
The first-ever test ended up exceeding NASA’s expectations. The instrument’s capabilities demonstrated that oxygen and rocket fuel for life support systems could be produced on Mars without transporting them from Earth.
This device is another tool that will help humans explore Mars. But astronauts need a little more Logistics support before calling the red planet home.
EMM/EXI/Dimitra Atri/NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences
This map of Mars, created by New York University Abu Dhabi researchers, uses color photographs of the entire planet.
It’s a good idea to check a map and weather forecast of your destination before any long journey – especially if it’s on another planet.
Researchers at New York University in Abu Dhabi aim to do just that with the Mars Atlas.
The project integrated thousands of images taken by the UAE’s HOPE survey A detailed color mosaic of the entire planet. The spacecraft has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2021.
The Mars Atlas can be used to identify weather patterns, resources, and safe landing sites for future explorers.
“It may sound silly, but in the future it will be very common for people to go to Mars and live there,” said Dimitra Adri, head of the university’s Mars Research Group.
A fossil of a bird-like dinosaur with unusual legs has been discovered in southeast China.
The creature was named Fujianvenator prodigiosus, which means “strange hunter from Fujian” in Latin, lived 148 million to 150 million years ago.
The size of a pheasant, Fujianvenator had Lower legs twice as long Its thighs – a distinctive feature that was considered upside down were true of most dinosaurs.
Courtesy Christopher Owen Hunt
Neanderthal remains with ancient pollen have been found in the Shanidar Cave in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
When archaeologist Ralph Solecki discovered a 65,000-year-old Neanderthal burial in northern Iraq in 1960, the remains were surrounded by clumps of pollen.
He and fellow archaeologist Arlette Leroy-Courhan proposed the idea that flowers were deliberately placed in the tomb at Shanidar Cave, Kurdistan.
This floral burial led to a new school of thought that ancient human relatives were intelligent and caring rather than dumb and brutish.
But new research suggests that traces of different types of pollen throughout the site were carried by another cave dweller: bees.
However, the nature of the tombs in the cave is still suggestive “Softness” is part of the Neanderthal burial processsaid Chris Hunt, professor emeritus at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, who led the latest study.
Separately, the team of scientists pinpointed when ancient humanity’s population declined and when it stayed the same. Extinct nearly 900,000 years ago.
After nearly two weeks of lunar exploration, India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander will take a well-deserved nap.
Mission controllers put the lander and its six-wheeled rover into sleep mode during the 14-day lunar night when the landing site was in Earth’s shadow. The team will attempt to resurface the spacecraft on September 22.
Since its historic landing on August 23, Chandrayaan-3 has probed the lunar soil, and the rover has detected the presence of sulfur by measuring seismic activity. The The lander also did a small bounce Using its thrusters it settled a short distance from its landing site.
Meanwhile, Japan is successful Its “Moon Sniper” launched the lunar lander This week, with a new X-ray satellite. The lander should reach the moon in three or four months.
Nicholas Reussens
Nicolas Reusens’ photograph of a glistening green tanager in Ecuador’s Mashpi Amagusa Reserve won the award’s best portrait category.
A caring penguin parent, a black tiger shadowed by the moon and a glistening green tanager perched on a heart-shaped leaf are some of the stunning images submitted to this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year competition.
Wildlife photography is a study in patience, and some of the images submitted have been years in the making.
The winning photo A female peregrine falcon is shown attacking a pelican twice its size. “The process was fast and finished in the blink of an eye,” Shi said. “But I will remember that moment forever.”
Take a closer look at these captivating stories:
– Archaeologists He found four Roman swords that were 1,900 years old and remarkably well-preserved artifacts in a cave near the shores of the Dead Sea in Israel.
– Scientists have developed Kidneys are made from human cells inside pig embryos For the first time, it has taken “pioneering steps” towards growing organs that can be used for transplantation.
– The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will soon deliver a long-awaited sample of an asteroid to Earth. Check out NASA’s arrangements The capsule is expected to arrive on September 24.
– Newly discovered Comet Nishimura is appearing in the early morning sky as it approaches Earth and the Sun, but it may present a challenge to sky watchers. Here it is How to Spot a Tricky Celestial Object.
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