Universe Today
• Matthew Williams
Frank Drake and Carl Sagan helped shape the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and efforts to communicate with it. Their work included the Pioneer plaques and Voyager Golden Records, artifacts that placed messages about humanity aboard spacecraft sent beyond Earth.
Space Exploration & Science Missions
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A privately funded Mars orbiter planned for launch in 2028 is expected to provide instruments with advanced computing and communications resources. The mission’s emphasis on onboard capabilities could give its payloads more capacity to process and transmit data during operations at Mars.
Frank Drake and Carl Sagan helped shape the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and efforts to communicate with it. Their work included the Pioneer plaques and Voyager Golden Records, artifacts that placed messages about humanity aboard spacecraft sent beyond Earth.
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Researchers comparing material returned from asteroid Bennu with the Murchison meteorite measured the amino acid β-alanine in both. The finding adds a specific point of comparison between asteroid material and a well-studied meteorite, as scientists analyze the chemical contents of extraterrestrial samples.
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On Nov. 12, 2014, Europe’s Philae spacecraft reached Comet 67P, but its landing did not go to plan: the probe bounced twice and was lost for nearly two years. The episode became a defining moment in a mission to explore a comet at close range.
Researchers are exploring whether the launch of powerful jets from black holes can be forecast. These jets can extend vast distances and disrupt star formation in nearby regions, making their timing relevant to understanding how black holes affect their surrounding galaxies.
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Astronomers are using James Webb Space Telescope observations and simulations to probe how the earliest supermassive black holes formed. One study argues that the enigmatic “Little Red Dots” may mark their birthplaces, while another reports the oldest known pair of black hole-powered quasars—objects that challenge expectations about the early universe.
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NASA is starting a new initiative, the Perseverance Sample Retrieval Architecture, to revisit how it could return samples collected on Mars to Earth. The effort renews work on a long-standing planetary science goal: bringing Red Planet material home for study.
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