New images show the intriguing discovery of Perseverance on Mars

And on Mars, inspiring discoveries are being made as the Perseverance rover investigates an intriguing site.

Other worlds

The Perseverance rover used its robotic arm to study a rock called Skinner Ridge on Mars.

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 littered with 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 to sulfates, which could preserve evidence of once potentially habitable sites on Mars and microbial life that may have existed there.

New photos show the promising rocks in the middle of the delta. alien landscape. These important samples could answer the ultimate cosmic question: are we alone in the universe?

We are family

Modern humans and Neanderthals lived together until our ancient relatives went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Now, researchers think they may have identified something that gave Homo sapiens a cognitive advantage over Stone Age hominins.

Scientists discovered a genetic mutation that could have allowed neurons to form faster in the modern human brain.

“We have identified a gene that contributes to making us human,” said study author Wieland Huttner, professor and director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany.

But some experts believe more research is needed to determine the gene’s true impact.

pioneers

The Foldscope is powerful enough to see a single bacterium.

What’s good for the goose is good for the goose, and these golden geese have delivered some pretty significant benefits.

Three teams of scientists have won the 2022 Golden Goose Awards, awards organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for groundbreaking breakthroughs.

One of them includes the Foldscope, a microscope made of paper that costs $1.75 to make. Stanford University bioengineer Manu Prakash came up with the idea on a research trip to the Thai jungle more than a decade ago.

The scientific instrument has traveled the world and has even been used by researchers to identify a new type of cyanobacteria.

Defying gravity

Mark your calendars: A NASA spacecraft will intentionally crash into a small asteroid on September 26.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft launched in November and is headed for a rendezvous with Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting an asteroid called Didymos.

The mission will push the asteroid, which poses no threat to Earth, to change its speed and trajectory in a first-of-its-kind kinetic impact test. If DART is successful, the mission could demonstrate future ways to protect Earth from space debris.

The spacecraft recently saw Didymos for the first time from about 32.2 million kilometers (20 million miles) away. the day of the meeting, we will see Dimorphos for the first time before DART collides with the space rock.

Impact

The Xerces blue butterfly is extinct and can only be seen in museum collections.

The Xerces blue butterfly, the Floreana giant tortoise and the Tasmanian tiger are just a few of the species that the world has lost due to human-caused threats.

Travel and environmental photographer Marc Schlossman has spent 15 years documenting specimens of extinct and endangered animals in the collection of Chicago’s Field Museum for his new book, “Extinction: Our Fragile Relationship with Life on Earth.”

Schlossman offers a ray 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 saved from being on the verge of disappearance or… as in the case of the New Zealand kākāpo — can be restored with “robust” conservation work.

scans

Take a closer look:

— One of Saturn’s moons brushed past the gas giant 160 million years ago and shattered — and This chaotic encounter could explain the origins of the planet’s characteristic rings..

— Food DNA from 6,000-year-old pottery found on the Isle of Lewis reveals that the ancient Scots enjoyed a breakfast that may sound familiar to us.

— Spectators saw an unusually slow fireball in the night sky over Scotland. The mystery object could be a space rock or space debris.

Do you like what you have read? Oh, but there is more. sign up here to receive the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by the writers of CNN Space and Science, delivered to your inbox ashley strickland Y katie hunt. They find wonders on planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.