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Tag Archives: Intriguing
NFL free agency 2023: Ranking the most intriguing teams from 1-32 heading into start of new league year – CBS Sports
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Tennessee Titans hold informal meetings with two intriguing EDGE prospects at NFL Scouting Combine – Music City Miracles
- Tennessee Titans hold informal meetings with two intriguing EDGE prospects at NFL Scouting Combine Music City Miracles
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Intriguing Meteorite From Mars Reveals ‘Huge Organic Diversity’, Scientists Say : ScienceAlert
In a recent study published in Sciences Advances, an international team of scientists led by the Technical University of Munich examined the Martian meteorite Tissint, which fell near the village of Tissint, Morocco, on 18 July 2011, with pieces of the meteorite found as far as approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the village.
What makes Tissint intriguing is the presence of a “huge organic diversity”, as noted in the study, which could help scientists better understand if life ever existed on Mars, and even the geologic history of Earth, as well.
“Mars and Earth share many aspects of their evolution,” Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, who is the director of the research unit Analytical Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich, and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“And while life arose and thrived on our home planet, the question of whether it ever existed on Mars is a very hot research topic that requires deeper knowledge of our neighboring planet’s water, organic molecules, and reactive surfaces.”
Organic molecules are molecules comprised of carbon atoms that are bonded to hydrogen atoms, but can also contain oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements, as well. The four primary classes of organic molecules include carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids.
As seen on Earth, organic molecules are analogous to life, but the study notes that abiotic organic chemistry, non-biological processes, have been observed “in other Martian meteorites.”
“Understanding the processes and sequence of events that shaped this rich organic bounty will reveal new details about Mars’ habitability and potentially about the reactions that could lead to the formation of life,” Dr. Andrew Steele, who is a staff scientist at Carnegie Science, a member of the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group for NASA’s Perseverance rover, and a co-author on the study, said in a statement.
Dr. Steele has also conducted extensive research pertaining to organic material found in Martian meteorites, to include Tissint.
For the study, the researchers examined the entirety of Tissint’s organic composition, and identified a “diverse chemistry and abundance in complex molecules “, as noted in the study, while also helping to unlock the past geologic processes within the crust and mantle of the red planet.
The researchers also identified a plethora of organic magnesium compounds never before observed on Mars, which could bring new evidence about the geochemical processes that shaped Mars’ deep interior while possibly making a link between the red planet’s mineral evolution and carbon cycle.
NASA’s upcoming Mars Sample Return mission could provide even greater insights into both the organic and mineral composition of the red planet. Dr. Schmitt-Kopplin recently told Universe Today that such a mission could be just as successful as Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission since they “were able to show that meteorites reflect nicely the chemistry found in the return mission, we probably will be able to do the same.”
Tissint has a total weight of 7 kilograms (15 pounds), and is currently the fifth meteorite classified as being of Martian origin, with a 2012 study estimating it was ejected from Mars approximately 700,000 years ago from some type of violent event.
Tissint draws some parallels with one of the most famous meteorites of Martian origin found on Earth, ALH 84001, which was the subject of much scrutiny in the late 1990s when it was initially believed to contain microfossils, findings that since been rendered inconclusive.
“ALH 84001 was one of the most studied Mars meteorites because it was found in Antarctica and thus was ‘conserved’ in the ice with low contamination,” Dr. Schmitt-Kopplin recently told Universe Today.
“That time looking at molecules of life in the diverse chemistry of that meteorite and seeing in addition biological-like features in microscopy led to a too rapid conclusion of having found life on Mars.”
What new secrets of Mars will Tissint, future meteorites, and the future samples returned from Mars teach us about the red planet? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity reaches intriguing salty site after treacherous journey
After a treacherous journey, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached an area that is thought to have formed billions of years ago when the Red Planet’s water disappeared.
This region of Mount Sharp, the Curiosity rover’s Martian stomping ground, is rich in salty minerals that scientists think were left behind when streams and ponds dried up. As such, this region could hold tantalizing clues about how the Martian climate changed from being similar to Earth’s to the frozen, barren desert that Curiosity explores today.
The salty minerals that enrich this area of Mount Sharp were first spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter years before Curiosity touched down on the Martian surface in 2012.
Related: Curiosity rover: 15 awe-inspiring photos of Mars (gallery)
When Curiosity finally got a close-up look at the terrain of Mount Sharp, the rover discovered a diverse array of rock types and signs of past water, including popcorn-textured nodules and salty minerals such as magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate (including gypsum) and sodium chloride, which makes up ordinary table salt.
After accounting for stresses on the rotary drill at the end of the rover’s 7-foot (2 meters) arm that’s used to pulverize rock samples for analysis, the Curiosity team selected a rock nicknamed “Canaima” for the drilling and collection of the mission’s 36th drill sample.
“As we do before every drill, we brushed away the dust and then poked the top surface of Canaima with the drill,” Kathya Zamora-Garcia, Curiosity’s project manager, said in a statement. “The lack of scratch marks or indentations was an indication that it may prove difficult to drill.”
The team then stopped to see whether that posed a danger to Curiosity’s arm. With a new drilling algorithm created to minimize the use of percussion, which is a hammering motion used by drills to penetrate hard surfaces, they decided to proceed, and no percussion was needed, Zamora-Garcia explained.
The team will now analyze pieces of the sample collected from Canaima using Curiosity’s Chemical and Mineralogy instrument and Sample Analysis at Mars instrument.
Curiosity’s summer road trip
To reach the sulfate-rich region, the Curiosity rover spent August journeying through a narrow, sand-lined stretch called Paraitepuy Pass. It took over a month for Curiosity to safely navigate this treacherous terrain, which snakes between high hills. Although Paraitepuy Pass is mostly free of sharp rocks that could damage the rover’s wheels, sand can be just as hazardous for Curiosity; if its wheels lose traction, the rover could get stuck.
The rover’s drivers also had another challenge to consider: The Martian sky was blocked by the hills around it, meaning Curiosity had to be carefully positioned so that its antennas pointed toward Earth and could remain in contact with Mars orbiters.
As the team carefully navigated this path, they were rewarded with some stunning images from Curiosity’s Mastcam, particularly a panorama of the region captured on Aug. 14.
“We would get new images every morning and just be in awe,” Curiosity’s science operations coordinator, Elena Amador-French, who manages collaboration between the science and engineering teams, said in the statement. “The sand ridges were gorgeous. You see perfect little rover tracks on them. And the cliffs were beautiful — we got really close to the walls.”
Despite clearing Paraitepuy Pass, Curiosity has a tough road ahead. This salty region comes with its own challenges — in particular, the rover’s operating team will have to account for the rocky terrain that makes it harder to place all six of Curiosity’s wheels on stable ground.
If Curiosity isn’t stable, operators won’t risk unfolding its drill-holding arm in case it clashes with jagged rocks.
“The more and more interesting the science results get, the more obstacles Mars seems to throw at us,” Amador-French said.
Curiosity will continue to explore this area, proving that after 10 years on Mars, the rover still has a lot of ground to cover.
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Intriguing ‘Shark With Frickin’ Laser Beam’ Art Appears On Exotic Test Jet
One of the two Scaled Composites stealthy Model 401 “Son of Ares” jets was spotted recently landing at the Mojave Air and Space Port fitted with a still curious, but now familiar ventral pod installed under the forward section of the fuselage. A whimsical depiction of a shark with what appears to be a laser strapped to its head – a reference to a well-known scene from the 1997 Mike Myers spy comedy Austin Powers – indicates it is related to a directed energy system of some kind. This is exactly what The War Zone, which was the first to report on this modification nearly two years ago to the date, had previously posited, as you can read more about here.
Twitter user @Task_Force23 grabbed the shots of the aircraft, which has the U.S. civil registration number N401XP and was using the callsign “Scat 71” at the time, on October 16 and was kind enough to share them with us. An L-39 Albatros jet trainer belonging to Gauntlet Aerospace, with the N-number N25PX, was observed flying close to N401XP likely acting as a chase plane or as part of a test itself.
The most immediately eye-catching addition to the N401XP is the “sharks with freakin’ laser beams attached their heads” artwork on the ventral pod. Scaled Composites, a famous cutting-edge aerospace design company that is currently a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, is well-known for adding tongue-in-cheek markings to their aircraft.
The art on N401XP’s ventral pod is undoubtedly a reference to the scene in the clip below from the 1997 film Austin Powers.
In fact, the ‘Son of Ares’ moniker for these jets – which are also nicknamed Phobos and Deimos, the sons of Ares, the god of war, in Greek mythology – is a reference to Scaled Composites’ earlier experimental Agile Responsive Effective Support (ARES) jet that was confirmed by a “World’s Greatest Dad” graphic that was spotted on the older aircraft in 2018, as you can read more about here. At various points, the ARES jet, which Scaled Composites continues to use for testing purposes, has also been seen with a “Chemtrail Tank” label poking fun at that conspiracy theory and a satellite communications dome on top of the fuselage painted to look like R2-D2, the fan-favorite droid from the Star Wars franchise.
The pod seen yesterday on N401XP looks more or less unchanged from when it was first spotted on that aircraft in October 2020. It still features a wide intake link front, two small aerials, one black and one white, underneath it and a large exhaust pipe at the rear, which is angled downward.
In addition, to the laser shark motif painted on the side, there is now also a warning label that reads “JET BLAST – DANGER” with an arrow pointing to the exhaust nozzle. This suggested that the exhaust system is attached to an auxiliary power unit (APU) of some kind, but there are other possibilities, as well.
Though the new pictures we have of N401XP from October 16 don’t provide a clear look at the right side of the pod, an underside view clearly shows that an aperture that was present two years ago is still there, as well.
N401XP otherwise looks to be largely in the same configuration, at least externally that it did two years ago, including a prominent ‘hump’ or ‘bulge’ underneath the fuselage right behind the ventral pod. The aircraft has notably gained two additional antennas on either side of the underside of the nose. At least one of those new antennas, along with another that was seen on the aircraft in 2020, is attached to a clearly demarcated section of the nose.
It’s not clear from the pictures we have from two years ago if this ‘sectioned’ nose was present on the jet then, too.
Beyond the now clear connection of some kind to a laser directed energy system, how specifically the ventral pod is designed to work remains unclear. The pod could potentially contain a laser itself – although it’s not clear where the emitter might go. A likely possibility is that the laser could be directed out of the aperture on the right side. The pod and what is buried in the aircraft’s bays overhead could hold an APU used to independently power the laser. So this would be a configuration in which the air intake is at the front, the exhaust is downward out the rear, and possibly an emitter that fires out the side, with APU being buried in the bay above. This would be a remarkably compact and intriguing installation, although just how the high thermal loads that high-power lasers are associated with would be managed isn’t clear.
Then again, we could just be seeing components tied to a tertiary emitter system that is planned to be installed elsewhere in the aircraft, too, such as where the pilot is now in an unmanned variant (hence and even more direct Dr. Evil ‘sharks with lasers on their head’ callback). The jet may not actually ever carry the laser itself, either, with the artwork on the pod simply being a reference to the plane’s use in some way in support of laser-related research work. Although this seems less likely due to the highly customized installation we are seeing now two years after it first appeared. And such a laser could even be sensor-related, not a laser weapon to swat-down hostile targets, for instance.
The two Scaled Composites Model 401s themselves were first developed to demonstrate various advanced, rapid, and low-cost design and manufacturing techniques as well as act as demonstrator support aircraft for undisclosed programs. They have since been employed for various testing purposes. In this role, the aircraft are regularly seen reconfigured for different tasks and have often been seen on flight tracking applications working in concert with the company’s high-flying Proteus testbed jet.
“Following initial performance envelope expansion, both aircraft conduct payload development testing for a wide variety of customers,” according to Scaled Composites’ website. “The aircraft are able to incorporate a diverse range of payload systems with over 80 cubic feet of internal payload volume and up to 2,000 pounds of payload weight capacity.”
To date, it’s unclear whether or not Northrop Grumman may be planning to market the Model 401, or variants or derivatives thereof, for general sale in any configuration. However, it seems very likely that this could be the case given that last year the company showed reporters a mockup of an unmanned version – it’s not clear if this simply reflected the pilotless configuration of the standard design or a new drone variant – as well as an entirely new drone derivative, known as the Model 437. You can read more about these developments here.
The Model 401 has features that could be very beneficial for the employment of a laser of some kind. Its high dihedral wings would offer any such payload installed underneath the fuselage a greater than horizon-to-horizon horizon field of view without having to bank.
The aircraft’s underlying design is good for being able to loiter in a particular area at low speeds for extended periods of time, while also being able to make transits to and from a specific point at higher jet speeds. An uncrewed configuration would eliminate any mission duration limitations that a human pilot might impose, as well as potentially offer other unique capabilities to the overall mix.
There are definitely various laser and potentially laser-related development efforts that N401XP could be flying in support of in this configuration with the underbelly pod. Despite encountering hurdles over the years, the U.S. Air Force, in particular, has a number of active programs focused on developing aircraft-mounted lasers for use as offensive and defensive weapons.
There is, of course, still no confirmed connection between N401XP in the configuration with the ventral pod and either of these programs, or any other aerial directed energy weapon efforts.
As The War Zone noted in 2020, whatever the purpose of the laser system fitted to N401XP might be, it could also be related to work on capabilities to protect against such directed energy weapons. Not long ago, one of the Son of Ares jets had been spotted with a mirror-like coating. Mirror-like finishes have now appeared in multiple forms on stealthy Air Force F-22 Raptors, F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, and F-117A Nighthawks, as well as U.S. Navy F-35Cs – all belong to these services’ test and evaluation communities – as you can read more about here.
It is possible that the ventral pod seen on N401XP has to do with something completely different, too. And yes, it could be a misdirection or even a reference to our past article, although that seems very unlikely. Still, at least when taken at face value, the podded addition to the jet’s underside is even more likely to have something to do with lasers now than before.
As time goes on, the Model 401s will likely prove more pivotal to the future of air combat than most would have expected and they could even spawn production aircraft, laser-equipped or not.
Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Finds Intriguing Organic Matter in Rock
This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.
In just a year and a half on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has absolutely rocked its mission. The agency held a briefing Thursday to discuss highlights from the science mission so far, and it was a celebration of rock samples and the discovery of organic matter.
Organic molecules in Wildcat Ridge
A rock named Wildcat Ridge, located in an ancient river delta region of Jezero Crater, was one of the stars of the show. Percy successfully collected two samples from the mudstone rock. Wildcat Ridge is particularly exciting because the organic molecules (called aromatics) found in it are considered a potential biosignature, which NASA describes as a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.
The rover team emphasized that finding organic matter doesn’t mean it’s found evidence of ancient life. Organic molecules have been spotted on Mars before, by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater and also by Perseverance, which found carbon-containing molecules earlier in the mission.
Perseverance collected two core samples from Wildcat Ridge and also abraded a round patch to inspect the rock with its Sherloc instrument.
NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS
The rover’s Sherloc instrument investigated the rock. (Sherloc stands for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals.) “In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the Sherloc instrument registered the most abundant organic detections on the mission to date,” NASA said.
Scientists are seeing familiar signs in the analysis of Wildcat Ridge. “In the distant past, the sand, mud and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley in a statement. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock — known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth — is important.”
Perseverance isn’t equipped to find definitive evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. “The reality is the burden of proof for establishing life on another planet is very, very high,” said Farley during the press conference. For that, we need to examine Mars rocks up close and in person in Earth labs.
Sample drop
Percy currently has 12 rock samples on board, including the Wildcat Ridge pieces and samples from another sedimentary delta rock called Skinner Ridge. It also collected igneous rock samples earlier in the mission that point to the impact of long-ago volcanic action in the crater.
NASA is so happy with the diversity of samples collected that it’s looking into dropping some of the filled tubes off on the surface soon in preparation for the future Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. MSR is an ambitious plan to send a lander to Mars, pick up Percy’s samples, rocket them off the surface and bring them back to Earth for close study. The mission is under development. If all goes as planned, those rocks could be here by 2033.
The complexity and importance of MSR means NASA and its partners are working out ways to ensure the samples can be collected. There’s hope Perseverance will still be operating in good condition by the time the MSR lander arrives, and will be able to meet it and personally deliver samples. Leaving some samples on the ground this early in the mission at a cache site in the crater will give MSR another opportunity to get the precious rocks on board.
Percy has been collecting paired samples. For example, it could keep one Wildcat Ridge tube on board and drop the other on the ground. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal,” said NASA JPL Director Laurie Leshin. “We will learn so much.”
What’s next for Percy
As thrilling as the delta has been, the rover team is looking ahead at future adventures beyond it. Perseverance could wander up the crater rim, with the team eyeing several possible paths for the climb. Its companion Ingenuity helicopter is in good health and expected to take to the air again.
NASA chose Jezero Crater for exploration because of its fascinating history of water and how the rocks there might preserve evidence of ancient life, if it existed during more habitable times on Mars. Sherloc scientist Sunanda Sharma likened the mission to a treasure hunt for organic life on another planet, saying the samples with aromatics are a clue. The Martian mystery is only just beginning to unfold.
New images show intriguing Perseverance discovery on Mars
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
CNN
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If you love space and exploring the cosmos, there is no shortage of wonder right now.
Scientists identified mysterious diamonds that likely originated from a dwarf planet that once existed in our solar system – until it collided with a large asteroid 4.5 billion years ago.
The rare space diamonds aren’t the only find mesmerizing researchers. A “breathtaking” image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope is revealing the secrets of star birth in the Orion Nebula. Expect to see more unprecedented Webb images in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the Artemis I mission has a new launch date scheduled for September 27, with a 70-minute window that opens at 11:37 a.m. ET.
And on Mars, inspiring discoveries are afoot as the Perseverance rover investigates an intriguing site.
The Perseverance rover has made its most exciting find on the red planet to date.
Perseverance has finally collected samples from the site of an ancient river delta, which is full of rock layers that serve as a geological record of the Martian past. Some of the rocks include the highest concentration of organic matter found by the rover to date, according to NASA scientists.
Among the organic matter are minerals that correlate with sulfates, which could preserve evidence of once potentially habitable sites on Mars and the microbial life that may have existed there.
New photos show the promising rocks amid the delta’s alien landscape. These important samples could answer the ultimate cosmic question: Are we alone in the universe?
Modern humans and Neanderthals lived in tandem until our ancient relatives went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Now, researchers think they may have pinpointed something that gave Homo sapiens a cognitive edge over the Stone Age hominins.
Scientists discovered a genetic mutation that may have allowed neurons to form faster in the modern human brain.
“We’ve identified a gene that contributes to making us human,” said study author Wieland Huttner, professor and director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany.
But some experts think more research is needed to ascertain the gene’s true impact.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander – and these golden geese have provided some pretty significant benefits.
Three teams of scientists won the 2022 Golden Goose Awards, prizes organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for pioneering breakthroughs.
One of those includes the Foldscope, a microscope made from paper that costs $1.75 to make. Stanford University bioengineer Manu Prakash came up with the idea on a research trip in the Thai jungle more than a decade ago.
The scientific instrument has traveled around the world, and researchers have even used it to identify a new type of cyanobacteria.
Mark your calendars: A NASA spacecraft will intentionally crash into a tiny asteroid on September 26.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, launched in November and is on its way to a rendezvous with Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting an asteroid called Didymos.
The mission will nudge the asteroid, which poses no threat to Earth, to change its speed and path in a first-of-its-kind test of kinetic impact. If DART is successful, the mission could demonstrate future ways to protect Earth from space debris.
The spacecraft recently got its first glimpse of Didymos from about 20 million miles (32.2 million kilometers) away. On the day of the encounter, we’ll see Dimorphos for the first time before DART collides with the space rock.
The Xerces blue butterfly, Floreana giant tortoise and Tasmanian tiger are just some of the species that the world has lost due to human-driven threats.
Environmental and travel photographer Marc Schlossman has spent 15 years documenting extinct and endangered animal specimens in Chicago’s Field Museum collection for his new book, “Extinction: Our Fragile Relationship With Life on Earth.”
Schlossman provides a glimmer of hope at a time when biodiversity loss is accelerating. Of the 82 species photographed for the book, 23 are extinct, he said.
Thanks to conservation efforts, the rest have been brought back from the brink of disappearing or – as in the case of the New Zealand kākāpo – can recover with “robust” conservation work.
Take a closer look:
– One of Saturn’s moons grazed the gas giant 160 million years ago and smashed apart – and this chaotic encounter could explain the origins of the planet’s signature rings.
– Food DNA from 6,000-year-old pottery found on the Isle of Lewis reveals that ancient Scots enjoyed a breakfast that may sound familiar to us.
– Spectators spied an unusually slow-moving fireball in the night sky over Scotland. The mystery object could be a space rock or space debris.
Life on Mars? Latest Intriguing Organic Findings by NASA’s Perseverance Rover
Perseverance Workspace at ‘Skinner Ridge’: NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rock’s composition. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Investigates Geologically Rich Mars Terrain
The most recent discoveries provide greater detail on a region of the Red Planet that has a watery past and is yielding promising samples for the
“We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples – and now we know we sent the rover to the right location,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “These first two science campaigns have yielded an amazing diversity of samples to bring back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Jezero Crater, which is 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, hosts a delta – an ancient fan-shaped feature that formed about 3.5 billion years ago at the convergence of a Martian river and a lake. Perseverance is currently examining the delta’s sedimentary rocks, which formed when particles of various sizes settled in the once-watery environment. During its first science campaign, the rover surveyed the crater’s floor, finding igneous rock, which forms deep underground from magma or during volcanic activity at the surface.
Perseverance Explores the Jezero Crater Delta: NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has arrived at an ancient delta in Jezero Crater, one of the best places on the Red Planet to search for potential signs of ancient life. The delta is an area where scientists surmise that a river once flowed billions of years ago into a lake and deposited sediments in a fan shape. Credit: NASA/
“The delta, with its diverse sedimentary rocks, contrasts beautifully with the igneous rocks – formed from crystallization of magma – discovered on the crater floor,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “This juxtaposition provides us with a rich understanding of the geologic history after the crater formed and a diverse sample suite. For example, we found a sandstone that carries grains and rock fragments created far from Jezero Crater – and a mudstone that includes intriguing organic compounds.”
A notable rock about 3 feet (1 meter) wide has been given the name “Wildcat Ridge.” It likely formed billions of years ago as mud and fine sand settled in an evaporating saltwater lake. On July 20, the rover abraded some of the surface of Wildcat Ridge. This allowed it to analyze the area with a sophisticated scientific instrument called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC.
According to SHERLOC’s analysis, the samples include a class of organic molecules that are spatially correlated with those of sulfate minerals. Sulfate minerals found in layers of sedimentary rock can yield important details about the aqueous environments in which they formed.
Two Perseverance Sampling Locations in Jezero’s Delta: NASA’s Perseverance rover collected rock samples for possible return to Earth in the future from two locations seen in this image of Mars’ Jezero Crater: “Wildcat Ridge” (lower left) and “Skinner Ridge” (upper right). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
What Is Organic Matter?
Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of compounds made primarily of carbon and they usually also include hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In addition, they can contain other elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Although there are chemical processes that produce these molecules that don’t require life, some of these compounds are the chemical building blocks of life. The presence of these specific molecules is considered to be a possible biosignature – a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.
In 2013, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover found evidence of organic matter in rock-powder samples, and Perseverance has detected organics in Jezero Crater before. But unlike that previous discovery, this latest detection was made in an area where, in the distant past, sediment and salts were deposited into a lake under conditions in which life could have potentially existed. In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the SHERLOC instrument recorded the most abundant organic detections on the mission thus far.
“In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Farley. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock – known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth – is important. However, as capable as our instruments aboard Perseverance are, further conclusions regarding what is contained in the Wildcat Ridge sample will have to wait until it’s returned to Earth for in-depth study as part of the agency’s Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Sample Collection and Rock Analysis at ‘Wildcat Ridge’: Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
The first step in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign began when Perseverance cored its first rock sample in September 2021. Along with its rock-core samples, the rover has collected one atmospheric sample and two witness tubes. All of these are stored in the rover’s belly.
The geologic diversity of the samples already carried in the rover is so good that the rover team is looking into depositing select tubes near the base of the delta in about two months. After depositing the cache, the rover will continue its delta explorations.
“I’ve studied Martian habitability and geology for much of my career and know first-hand the incredible scientific value of returning a carefully collected set of Mars rocks to Earth,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal. We will learn so much.”
More About the Mission
Astrobiology is a key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach. This includes crewed Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Astronomers spot 2 intriguing alien worlds around ultracool star
An international team of astronomers has discovered two new super-Earths orbiting a distant ultracool dwarf star located 100 light-years away from Earth.
The newly spotted exoplanets orbit the second coolest star ever found with planets around it. The inner planet of the system, designated LP 890-9b, is around 30% larger than Earth and rapidly orbits the dwarf star in just 2.7 Earth days. The second planet, called LP 890-9c, is slightly larger, at around 40% the size of Earth, and completes its orbit in around 8.5 Earth days. Astronomers believe this second planet is in the habitable zone of its star, where it is neither too hot nor too cold to support the existence of liquid water at its surface.
The inner planet was originally identified as an exoplanet candidate by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which spots exoplanets as they cross the face of their stars as seen from Earth, causing a tiny drop in light output. It was then confirmed by telescopes of the Search for Habitable Planets Eclipsing Ultra-cool Stars (SPECULOOS) project operated by the University of Birmingham in the U.K. (In addition to LP 890-9, the system is sometimes referred to as TOI-4306 or SPECULOOS 2 to recognize these two observers.)
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The SPECULOOS team then searched the system for additional exoplanets, which revealed the second world that TESS missed.
“TESS searches for exoplanets using the transit method, by monitoring the brightness of thousands of stars simultaneously, looking for slight dimmings that might be caused by planets passing in front of their stars,” Laetitia Delrez, an exoplanetary scientist at the University of Liège in Belgium and lead author of a paper detailing the discovery, said in a statement (opens in new tab). “However, a follow-up with ground-based telescopes is often necessary to confirm the planetary nature of the detected candidates and to refine the measurements of their sizes and orbital properties.”
This follow-up work is particularly important in the case of cool stars like LP 890-9 because much of their light registers as infrared, to which TESS’s sensitivity is limited.
That weakness isn’t shared by the SPECULOOS project telescopes, which are located in Chile and on Tenerife, an island just west of Morocco. These telescopes are equipped with cameras that are very sensitive to near-infrared light.
“The goal of SPECULOOS is to search for potentially habitable terrestrial planets transiting some of the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighborhood,” Michaël Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liège and SPECULOOS project principal investigator, said in the same statement. “This strategy is motivated by the fact that such planets are particularly well suited to detailed studies of their atmospheres and the search for possible chemical traces of life with large observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).”
Gillon compared the discovery of these planets around the cool star LP 890-9 to finding the exoplanets of the TRAPPIST-1 system, centered on what is currently the coolest star ever found to have planets orbiting it.
Of the seven known exoplanets around TRAPPIST-1, three are in the habitable zone, which has made the system a prime target for deeper investigation. And the fact that one of these newly discovered worlds occupies the habitable zone of LP 890-9 makes further investigation of the system almost equally enticing.
“This gives us a license to observe more and find out whether the planet has an atmosphere, and if so, to study its content and assess its habitability,” Amaury Triaud, an astrophysicist at the University of Birmingham and SPECULOOS working group leader, said.
Next, the scientists hope to study the atmosphere of SPECULOOS-2c, possibly with JWST, which recently detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
“It is important to detect as many temperate terrestrial worlds as possible to study the diversity of exoplanet climates and eventually to be in a position to measure how frequently biology has emerged in the cosmos,” Triaud concluded.
The team’s research was published Wednesday (Sept. 6) in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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