3 weeks ago
NASA/JPL-Caltech
What a week. Beloved quality communicator David Attenborough turned 100 connected Friday, and scientists named a recently discovered type of wasp successful his honor. The wasp from Chile, called Attenboroughnculus tau, isn't nan first to beryllium named aft Attenborough — it joins a database of complete 50 organisms base his sanction successful immoderate way, which seems astir right. Also this week, NASA shared an update astir its Curiosity rover, which encountered immoderate issues during a sampling effort connected Mars, and nan agency released a caller batch of photos from nan Artemis II mission.
Read connected on to study much astir those and different subject stories we recovered absorbing this week.
Curiosity runs into a spot of trouble
NASA's Curiosity rover recovered itself successful a spot of a pickle precocious aft drilling into immoderate Martian stone that proved unexpectedly clingy. In an incident that was captured by Curiosity's cameras connected April 29, nan rover tin beryllium seen pinch a slab of stone stuck connected its drill spot aft it attempted to cod a sample. The rock, dubbed Atacama, was astir 1.5 feet wide and weighed astir 30 pounds, according to NASA. Somehow successful nan 14 years nan rover has been exploring Mars, this has ne'er happened before, and vibrating nan drill to shingle nan stone free didn't activity astatine first.
"When nan rover retracted its arm, nan full stone lifted retired of nan ground, suspended by nan fixed sleeve that surrounds nan rotating drill bit," NASA explains successful a blog post. "Drilling has fractured aliases separated nan precocious layers of rocks successful nan past, but a stone has ne'er remained attached to nan drill sleeve." After a fewer much attempts complete nan adjacent mates of days, nan squad was capable to get nan stone loose by "tilting nan drill more, rotating and vibrating nan drill, and spinning nan drill bit." We tin see nan rock yet dropping distant from Curiosity and breaking isolated successful images taken connected May 1.
Curiosity has taken dozens of samples from nan aboveground of Mars by drilling into rock, arsenic shown successful this image from 2024 (trypophobia warning). After drilling, nan rover collects nan powderized stone and analyzes it pinch its Sample Analysis astatine Mars (SAM) and Chemistry & Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments to find nan composition. Now that its little mishap has been resolved, it tin get backmost to work.
What goes connected astatine nan bottommost of an Arctic fjord
The Arctic seafloor isn't precisely an easy spot to observe, but acknowledgment to a long-running investigation programme astatine Inglefield Bredning successful northwest Greenland, we've sewage a glimpse of what life is for illustration location heavy beneath nan surface. As portion of this effort, researchers deployed a video camera and hydrophone 260 meters heavy successful nan fjord for a week successful August 2025 to measure nan seafloor situation and biodiversity. Their findings were conscionable published successful nan diary PLOS One, on pinch immoderate unthinkable photos and videos (don't beryllium alarmed by nan eerie hue, that's owed to nan reddish ray they utilized underwater).
The squad recorded a full of 478 different organisms, including comb jellies, arrowworms, snailfish and shrimp. In 1 clip, a snailfish tin beryllium seen passively riding nan existent to drift backward, which nan researchers statement was "peculiar." Check retired nan highlights here.
Podolskiy et al.
The instruments besides picked up nan sounds of adjacent narwhals, which were coming connected each time of nan study isolated from one, arsenic good arsenic nan sounds of cracking and pouring icebergs and vessel motor noises. The footage besides shows tons of what's known arsenic "marine snow," aliases integrated debris for illustration poop and worldly from dormant animals and plants. It's benignant of gross to deliberation about, but galore deep-sea creatures trust connected this worldly that falls from higher waters.
Based connected nan occurrence of their observations, nan researchers opportunity their attack could beryllium a feasible measurement to study these heavy Arctic ecosystems. "So far, location person been fewer nonstop underwater observations successful nan Arctic for ecological research," nan authors wrote. "With video setups becoming accessible, much studies would beryllium beneficial for filling this knowledge gap." Compact, portable moorings pinch video recorders could beryllium "an important instrumentality for exploration of nan Arctic seafloor," they note.
Feast your eyes connected 12,000+ photos from Artemis II
NASA
NASA this week released thousands of pictures captured during past month's Artemis II ngo astir nan moon. You tin find them each here. In classical authorities website fashion, nan UI benignant of sucks, but it's good worthy it to click done nan catalog if you've sewage immoderate clip connected your hands. While their target was nan moon, and location are tons of awesome shots of nan satellite some from up adjacent and afar, location are immoderate really striking images of Earth and nan Milky Way successful location too.
Before you go, beryllium judge to cheque retired these stories too:
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