Mars

• NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered a vast "sea" of tiny, polygon-shaped fractures forming a honeycomb landscape within a Martian valley. • The patterns are only a few inches wide and are so extensive that they wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte. • This finding adds to a long series of unexpected geological discoveries made by the rover since its landing on August 6, 2012.

• NASA's Viking landers were launched on an audacious mission to search for signs of past or present life in Martian soil. • While most experts agree the twin spacecraft failed to find definitive evidence of organisms, some scientists argue the results were misinterpreted. • This debate highlights a tension between cautious scientific consensus and the belief that evidence of life may have already been overlooked.

• NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has documented significant wear and tear on its wheels after nearly 14 years of operation on the Red Planet. • New images reveal cracks and structural damage resulting from the rover's extensive mileage across the harsh Martian terrain. • This degradation highlights the extreme environmental challenges faced by long-term robotic missions and the physical toll of navigating sharp volcanic rocks.

• NASA commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Viking I landing, a milestone mission that fundamentally transformed the scientific search for extraterrestrial life on Mars. • Alongside Viking II, these missions provided the first successful long-term operations on the Martian surface and conducted critical biological experiments to detect organic compounds. • The legacy of the Viking program continues to influence modern research, including recent studies in Communications Earth & Environment regarding perchlorate brine formation at the Viking 2 site.

• NASA released a timelapse video showing the Psyche spacecraft's perspective as it zoomed past Mars in May 2026. • While the mission did not expect major new discoveries due to Mars' extensive history of study, the spacecraft provided a unique vantage point for data collection. • This flyby serves as a complementary addition to existing Mars science, utilizing Psyche's specific trajectory and instrumentation.

• NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully completed a Mars flyby, utilizing the planet's gravity to gain momentum for its journey toward a metal-rich asteroid. • During the maneuver, the probe tested its onboard scientific instruments, capturing high-resolution imagery and data of the Red Planet. • This flyby serves as a critical technical milestone, ensuring the spacecraft's systems are fully operational before it reaches its primary target.

• Fifty years after the NASA Viking 1 lander touched down on Mars, scientists continue to debate whether the mission discovered evidence of extraterrestrial life. • A recent analysis suggests that Viking 1 likely found autotrophic microbial life, estimating a density of approximately 1,000 cells per gram of soil. • The debate persists because the original results were ambiguous, leaving the scientific community divided on whether the findings were biological or chemical in nature.

• NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully completed a flyby of Mars, capturing a significant trove of data and a time-lapse video of the encounter. • Mission scientists used the flyby to calibrate instruments under dynamic conditions and study the physics of planetary magnetism. • This calibration phase is a critical step in ensuring the spacecraft's systems are fully operational before it reaches its primary target.

• NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered an unusual honeycomb-like texture on the Martian surface. • The findings include these strange geometric patterns alongside various dark rocks scattered across the area. • This discovery is significant as it presents a new geological mystery for researchers to investigate regarding Mars' surface composition.

Clarence Frazier Jr charged with murder over killing of Drew Hanson and could face death penalty if convictedA federal agent was fatally shot while trying to help authorities capture a man who failed to show up to his sexual battery trial in Louisiana, according to the US justice department.Clarence Frazier Jr, 48, was charged with murder in the killing of deputy US marshal Drew Hanson, authorities said. Frazier could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if he is eventually convicted of murdering Hanson. Continue reading...

• NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered the largest concentration of complex organic molecules to date within mudstones in the Jezero Crater. • The findings consist of macromolecular carbon, which are complex carbon-based compounds that serve as the chemical backbone for all known life on Earth. • This discovery provides the strongest evidence yet of potential ancient life on Mars, as the rover has been exploring this specific region since February 2021.

• NASA is seeking volunteers for its Moon & Mars Exploration Analog (MMEA), a simulation designed to recreate the challenges of a long-duration mission to Mars. • Participants will spend one year in a locked environment featuring virtual reality spacewalks and a mandatory social media detox to optimize life-support and operational success. • The initiative builds upon existing research from the HERA isolation studies and the CHAPEA Martian surface simulations to ensure human safety and efficiency.

• NASA has announced new lunar landing contracts for the Artemis Moon Base program and proposed a potential new mission called PROMISE. • The PROMISE mission aims to send a spare nuclear-powered Mars rover to the lunar surface to test its capabilities in a different environment. • This initiative demonstrates NASA's willingness to pursue high-risk, "near impossible" goals to maximize the utility of existing advanced hardware.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected the most complex organic chemistry ever found on Mars within mudstones located in the Jezero Crater. • This discovery follows similar findings by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, situated over 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) away. • The presence of organic-bearing materials in two distinct locations suggests that the raw ingredients for life and environments capable of preserving them were widespread across the planet.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected hundreds of organic molecules within two mudstone samples in the Jezero crater on Mars. • These findings represent the most robust detection of complex carbon-based materials to date in this specific region of the Red Planet. • The discovery is significant because organic compounds are essential building blocks for life, strengthening the hypothesis that Mars once hosted ancient microbes.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected organic carbon molecules in rocks located on an ancient Martian riverbed that flowed billions of years ago. • This discovery complements previous findings by the Curiosity rover in the Gale crater, meaning organic-bearing mudstones have now been identified more than 2,000 miles apart. • While these signatures are potential indicators of ancient microbial life, scientists caution that they do not yet provide definitive proof of biological activity.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected a record-breaking concentration of macromolecular carbon at the Bright Angel rock formation on Mars. • These carbon molecules are significant because they are key building blocks for life and can persist in rocks for billions of years. • The discovery provides critical evidence in the ongoing search for ancient microbial life by identifying organic materials in a geologically diverse area.

• Relativity Space announced plans in June 2026 to privately build and launch a Mars orbiter by 2028. • The mission will carry NASA's Aeolus atmospheric instruments and serve as a communications relay, funded by an unnamed philanthropic donor. • The announcement comes despite the company's poor track record, as its only rocket flight in March 2023 failed to reach orbit due to a second-stage engine failure.

• NASA announced a new public-private partnership on Wednesday aimed at advancing Mars science by integrating agency leadership with commercial innovation. • The initiative seeks to accelerate scientific discovery and increase the frequency of missions to the Red Planet. • This collaboration is a strategic move to strengthen the technical and scientific foundation required for future human exploration of Mars.

• Relativity Space has announced plans to develop and launch a private Mars orbiter mission scheduled for 2028. • This initiative marks a strategic shift for the company as it moves toward privately developing complex planetary missions. • The project demonstrates a growing trend of commercial aerospace firms expanding their capabilities beyond Earth's orbit to explore deep space.

• NASA is reportedly shifting its priorities away from the active search for life on Mars, placing the long-standing quest in a state of limbo. • This pivot comes 50 years after the Viking 1 mission initiated the search for Martian organisms, a goal once championed by scientists like Carl Sagan and Joshua Lederberg. • The shift matters because it represents a departure from an "existential quest" to find extraterrestrial life, which has driven Martian exploration for decades.

• NASA has officially declared the MAVEN Mars orbiter dead after 12 years of productive operation studying the Red Planet's atmosphere. • The spacecraft remains in a stable orbit, though it is no longer functional and will eventually crash into the Martian surface within the next 100 years. • This mission conclusion adds to the "Mars morgue" of previous probes, highlighting the long-term lifecycle and eventual disposal of deep-space hardware.

• NASA has officially ended the MAVEN mission after losing contact with the spacecraft, which reportedly began spinning out of control. • The spacecraft had spent 11 years orbiting Mars to study the planet's atmosphere, climate, and the processes that caused its atmosphere to strip away. • This loss marks the conclusion of a decade-long effort to understand Mars' evolution and determine if the planet could have once supported life.

• NASA has officially declared the MAVEN Mars orbiter dead after the spacecraft suffered a critical anomaly. • The decision follows several months of radio silence and unsuccessful attempts to re-establish contact with the probe. • MAVEN's mission was vital for studying the Martian upper atmosphere and understanding how the planet lost its water and atmosphere over time.

CCTV cameras caught the carnivorous marsupial skulking around deserted grounds at 4am Tuesday morningFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA search is under way on Queensland’s Gold Coast for a missing Tasmanian devil who escaped her enclosure in a daring early morning dash caught on camera.The devil, named Mary, did a Houdini from the Paradise Country theme park, escaping from quarantine in the early hours of Tuesday. Continue reading...

GB News owner’s son, who wants Channel to be mined to stop migrants, is latest to have a go at transatlantic rightwing commentaryOn a Los Angeles stage in 2011 Winston Marshall, then the banjo player for the folk rock band Mumford & Sons, could scarcely believe what was happening. Not only was he playing at the Grammys, he was playing alongside Bob Dylan, legendary composer of social justice anthems and one of his heroes.About 15 years later, Marshall once again found himself stateside, this time on a very different stage. Appearing on Fox News in his new guise as a conservative YouTuber, Marshall advocated what he admitted was an “outlandish idea” to stop small boat crossings in the Channel. Continue reading...

• NASA's Perseverance rover discovered extensive water ice deposits beneath Mars' surface in Jezero Crater using advanced ground-penetrating radar technology, with findings suggesting accessibility for future human missions. • The subsurface ice layers extend up to 300 meters deep and contain an estimated 5 million metric tons of water ice, according to data released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 21. • Scientists believe the water deposits could support long-term human habitation and fuel production, making Mars exploration more feasible for sustained presence beyond current rover missions.

Scientists think they are looking at chemical building blocks of life preserved for 3.5bn yearsNasa’s Curiosity rover has detected organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals widely considered building blocks for the origin of life of Earth.Five of the seven molecules identified in a dried lakebed near the equator had never previously been observed on the red planet. The analysis, performed by the robotic rover, cannot establish whether the organic compounds are linked to potential ancient life on Mars or were delivered by meteorites or formed through geological processes. However, they imply that if microbial life once thrived on Mars, chemical fingerprints should remain there today. Continue reading...