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Watch out, tardigrades: The first life form to colonize Mars may be a hardy desert moss, according to a recent study.

A team of researchers recently put a desert moss called Syntrichia caninervis through a barrage of tests, from years in a deep freeze to blasts of gamma and ultraviolet radiation, in a simulated version of Marss thin, mostly-carbon dioxide atmosphere. And the moss survived it all. According to the study, that means S. caninervis, also called steppe screw moss, may eventually be able to grow on Mars and even help terraform the cold, dry planet.

S. caninervis represents a promising candidate as a colonist to facilitate terraforming efforts on Mars or other planets, write Chinese Academy of Sciences ecologist Xiaoshuang Li and his colleagues, who published their work in the journal The Innovation.

After spending up to 5 years in deep deep freezers at -112 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 5 years, most plants would be dead, but when Li and his colleagues thawed out their samples of S. caninervis, the moss recovered within a few days and even grew new branches. Li and his colleagues blasted other samples with 500 grays (units of ionizing radiation) of gamma radiation. This is about ten times higher than the dose required to kill humans pretty much immediately. The moss not only survived, but thrived: Radiation-blasted samples grew more new branches than control samples. Sort of like the Hulk, if Bruce Banner were a tiny plant.

Scientists have spent decades looking for organisms that could survive in the vacuum of space or on the surface of Mars for decades now and trying to figure out how they do it. Bacteria, spores from fungi and plants, and even the iconic tardigrade (reigning champion of surviving horrible conditions) have spent weeks at a time exposed to the vacuum of space (meaning no air or pressure) in experiments on the outside of the International Space Station, for example. But Li and his colleagues experiments are the first time a whole plant has survived anything like conditions on the surface of Mars.

That means surviving with little or no air or at least what we humans think of as air. Almost all the air on Mars is actually carbon dioxide, which we cant breathe, but plants can. On the other hand, Marss atmosphere is extremely thin; on the ground, Martian air pressure is only about 1 percent of the air pressure at sea level here on Earth. You dont think about the weight of the whole atmosphere pressing down on you very often, but without it, liquid water would boil into steam in an instant (which would be very unpleasant for you, a creature made of about two-thirds water).

Surviving Mars also means being bombarded with radiation, because the thin Martian atmosphere doesnt offer much protection from ultraviolet or gamma rays. It also means enduring intense cold, down to about -70 degrees Fahrenheit. Li and his colleagues put some S. caninervis in a tank that simulated those conditions for about a week, and afterwards, the moss recovered and grew again.

Here on Earth, S. caninervis lives in some of the coldest and driest places on Earth, like Tibet, Antarctica, and the Arctic Circle. Thats why Li and his colleagues thought it might be a good candidate to help Earth life gain a green foothold on Mars and turn the planet into a livable place.

S. caninervis can help drive the atmospheric, geological, and ecological processes required for other higher plants and animals while facilitating the creation of new habitable environments conducive to long-term human settlement, write Li and his colleagues.

And theres good reason to imagine moss as a future terraformer, because the first plants to colonize land here on Earth were mosses.

The moss rebounded from everything Li and his colleagues simulated Mars could throw at it, but there are a couple of slight catches. As Li and his colleagues acknowledge, there is still a long way to go to create self-sufficient habitats on other planets.

First, dont picture a green, fluffy carpet of moss, happily living its best mossy life in freezing temperatures with no water. Instead, picture a clump of dried-out brown moss, waiting patiently until the weather turns warmer and nearby ice melts enough to sprinkle it with water. S. caninervis, like many other mosses, can force most of the water out of its cells to wait out freezes, droughts, and even bursts of high-energy radiation. When the moss senses nearby water and a comfier environment, it can regenerate and start growing again.

That means that if we planted a patch of S. caninervis somewhere on Mars, it would pretty much just sit there and look dead until we found a way to water it without the water immediately boiling away in Marss thin atmosphere. But its a start.

Li and his colleagues also noticed that moss samples recovered faster if theyd been dried out before being hit with the deep freeze and radiation tests, although even moss that started out without that advantage did recover.

Looking to the future, we expect that this promising moss could be brought to Mars or the Moon to further test the possibility of plant colonization and growth in outer space, write Li and his colleagues.

Of course, thats fraught territory, since at the moment were still trying to figure out whether Mars was ever home to life of its own. Contaminating the place with Earth life, especially Earth life that might actually survive there, is high on the list of things most space agencies want to avoid for the foreseeable future. Any mission that eventually does take moss or any other living samples to Mars is probably going to have strict protocols to follow to keep from giving the planet any Earth cooties.

Meanwhile, though, the Moon might be a better place, since it was never home to life of its own and its unlikely anything could actually gain a foothold there. And moss samples on the Moon would at least have some tardigrades for company.

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This Humble Plant Species May Be the Key to Terraforming Mars - Inverse

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Researchers have figured out the first estimate of global meteorite impacts on Mars using seismic data.

Their findings indicate between 280 to 360 meteorites strike the planet each year forming impact craters greater than 8 meters (about 26 feet) across.

This rate was about five times higher than the number estimated from orbital imagery alone, says Graldine Zenhusern of ETH Zurich, who co-led the study. Aligned with orbital imagery, our findings demonstrate that seismology is an excellent tool for measuring impact rates.

Using data from the seismometer deployed during the NASA InSight Mission to Mars, researchers found that 6 seismic events recorded in the near proximity of the station had been previously identified as meteoric impactsa process enabled by the recording of a specific acoustic atmospheric signal generated when meteorites enter the Martian atmosphere.

Now, co-lead Zenhusern of ETH Zurich, Natalia Wjcicka of Imperial College London, and the research team have found that these 6 seismic events belong to a much larger group of marsquakes, so called very high frequency (VF) events.

The source process of these quakes occurs much faster than for a tectonic marsquake of similar size. Where a normal magnitude 3-quake on Mars takes several seconds, an impact-generated event of the same size takes only 0.2 seconds or less, due to the hypervelocity of the collision. By analysing marsquake spectra, a further 80 marsquakes were identified that are now thought to be caused by meteoroid strikes.

Their research quest began in December 2021, a year before accumulated dust on the solar panels put an end to the InSight mission, when a large distant quake recorded by the seismometer reverberated a broadband seismic signal throughout the planet. Remote sensing associated the quake with a 150-meter-wide crater.

To confirm, the InSight team partnered with Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX) to search for other fresh craters that would match the timing and location of the seismic events detected by InSight.

The teams detective work paid off and they were lucky to find a second fresh crater over a 100-meters (320 feet) in diameter. Smaller craters, however, formed when basketball-sized meteoroids strike the planet and which should be far more common, remained elusive.

Now, the number of meteorite strikes is newly estimated by the occurrence of these special high-frequency quakes.

Approximately 17,000 meteorites fall to Earth each year, but unless they streak across the nights sky, they are rarely noticed. Most meteors disintegrate as they enter Earths atmosphere, but on Mars the atmosphere is 100 times thinner leaving its surface exposed to larger and more frequent meteorite strikes.

Until now, planetary scientists have relied on orbital images and models inferred from well-preserved meteorite impact craters on the Moon but extrapolating these estimates to Mars proved challenging.

Scientists had to account for the stronger gravitational pull of Mars and its proximity to the asteroid belt, which both mean that more meteorites hit the red planet. On the other hand, regular sandstorms result in craters that are much less well-preserved than those on the Moon, and, therefore, not as easily detected with orbital imagery.

When a meteorite strikes the planet, the seismic waves of the impact travel through the crust and mantle and can be picked up by seismometers, which provides an entirely new way of measuring Mars impact rate.

We estimated crater diameters from the magnitude of all the VF-marsquakes and their distances, then used it to calculate how many craters formed around the InSight lander over the course of a year, says Wjcicka. We then extrapolated this data to estimate the number of impacts that happen annually on the whole surface of Mars.

While new craters can best be seen on flat and dusty terrain where they really stand out, this type of terrain covers less than half of the surface of Mars, says Zenhusern. The sensitive InSight seismometer, however, could hear every single impact within the landers range.

Much like the lines and wrinkles on our face, the size and density of craters from meteorite strikes reveal clues about the age of different regions of a planetary body. The less craters, the younger the region of the planet.

Venus, for example, has almost no visible craters because it is protected by a think atmosphere and its surface is continually reworked by volcanism, the ancient surfaces of Mercury and the Moon are heavily cratered.

Mars falls in between these examples, with some old and some young regions that can be distinguished by the number of craters.

New data shows, an 8-meter (26-feet) crater happens somewhere on the surface of Mars nearly every day and a 30-meter (98-feet) crater occurs about once a month. Since hypervelocity impacts cause blast zones that are easily 100 times larger in diameter than the crater, knowing the exact number of impacts is important for the safety of robotic, but also future human missions to the red planet.

This is the first paper of its kind to determine how often meteorites impact the surface of Mars from seismological datawhich was a level one mission goal of the Mars InSight Mission, says Domenico Giardini, professor of seismology and geodynamics at ETH Zurich and co-principal investigator for the NASA Mars InSight Mission. Such data factors into the planning for future missions to Mars.

According to Zenhusern and Wjcicka, the next steps in advancing this research involve the use of machine learning technologies to aid researchers in identifying further craters in satellite images and identifying seismic events in the data.

The researchers work appears in four papers, one in Nature Astronomy, one in Science Advances, one in Science, and one in Nature Geoscience.

Source: ETH Zurich

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Meteorites the size of basketballs hit Mars almost every day - Futurity: Research News

Every now and then, something ordinary reveals extraordinary potential. At first glance, a robust desert moss known as Syntrichia caninervis might not strike you as particularly impressive. However, new research suggests it might just be the key to opening up the possibility of life on Mars.

The exceptional resilience of this moss, brought to light by ecologists Yuanming Zhang and Daoyuan Zhang, along with botanist Tingyun Kuang, has set the scientific world abuzz. All three are affiliated with the esteemed Chinese Academy of Sciences and have dedicated extensive time and effort to their research.

In the wild, Syntrichia caninervis is found in extreme desert environments from Tibet to Antarctica and the circumpolar regions. This moss forms the biological soil crust, a resilient, widespread ground cover often found in arid lands.

The researchers put Syntrichia caninervis through a series of rigorous tests in their lab, pushing the plant to its limits. The results are nothing short of staggering.

The team tested the cold tolerance of the moss by storing it in below-freezing temperatures. Remarkably, the plants sprung back to life after being thawed, especially those that had been dehydrated before they were frozen.

Syntrichia caninervis showed remarkable resilience to gamma radiation, with doses of 500 Gy even seeming to boost the plants growth. For perspective, exposure to around 50 Gy would cause severe damage, even death, in humans.

In fact, gamma radiation at such high levels is known to break down the DNA structure in most organisms, leading to catastrophic cell damage.

However, this resilient plant not only survives but thrives, demonstrating an incredible natural adaptation that could have significant implications for understanding radiation resistance and potentially aiding in biotechnological advancements.

Our study shows that the environmental resilience ofS. caninervisis superior to that of some of highly stress-tolerant microorganisms and tardigrades, noted the researchers.

S. caninervisis a promising candidate pioneer plant for colonizing extraterrestrial environments, laying the foundation for building biologically sustainable human habitats beyond Earth.

The true test of the moss was its ability to survive simulated Martian conditions within the Chinese Academy of Sciences Planetary Atmospheres Simulation Facility.

This simulator mimicked Mars harsh environment, complete with fluctuating temperatures, high levels of UV radiation, low atmospheric pressure, and a CO2-heavy atmosphere.

Astoundingly, the moss demonstrated a 100% regeneration rate, even after enduring these conditions for up to a week. The hydrated plants, though regenerating more slowly than their dried counterparts, also survived the Martian simulation.

Clearly, Syntrichia caninervis is no ordinary moss but an extraordinary potential pioneer for extraterrestrial colonization. The researchers see a bright future where this moss might find a home on Mars or the Moon.

Although there is still a long way to go to create self-sufficient habitats on other planets, we demonstrated the great potential ofS. caninervisas a pioneer plant for growth on Mars, said the researchers.

Looking to the future, we expect that this promising moss could be brought to Mars or the Moon to further test the possibility of plant colonization and growth in outer space.

The resilience of Syntrichia caninervis is a promising leap toward a future where we might see sustainable human habitats in outer space. So, the next time you come across a patch of moss, take a moment to marvel at the potential it might hold.

Are we ready to move to Mars? Will this small plant be the key to colonizing the Red Planet? Only time will tell. Scientists around the world are working tirelessly to unlock the secrets of Mars environment and its potential to support human life.

Until then, keep your eyes peeled for the next big revelation in the world of science. Advances in technology and space exploration are happening at an unprecedented rate, promising exciting discoveries just around the corner.

The extensive research on Syntrichia caninervis is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Leading Talents in Technological Innovation Program, and The Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition Program.

The study is published in the journal The Innovation.

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This desert moss might help humans live on Mars - Earth.com

Syntrichia caninervis in Hackberry Canyon, Colorado

Lee Rentz / Alamy

A hardy moss found in desert locations around the globe can survive environmental conditions that are lethal to almost all other life forms, suggesting it could be the first possible pioneer species for the colonisation of Mars.

Syntrichia caninervis is widespread in some of Earths harshest locations, including Tibet and Antarctica, so Xiaoshuang Li at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography in Urumqi, China, and his colleagues decided to subject it to a brutal suite of tests to discover just how much it could survive.

The researchers found that the moss could regenerate after being stored at -80C for five years or in liquid nitrogen at -196C for a month. They also bombarded it with doses of gamma radiation and found that up to 500 Gray units (Gy) actually helped the moss regenerate, while only doses over 8000Gy caused severe damage. Most plants cant cope with radiation above 500Gy, while 50Gy is enough to cause convulsions and death in humans.

Putting this all together, the team put the moss in simulated Martian conditions, including an atmosphere composed of 95 per cent carbon dioxide, temperatures that fluctuated from -60C to 20C, high levels of UV radiation and low atmospheric pressure. Even after a week in the simulator, the moss was able to fully regenerate after 30 days.

That said, one environmental factor the team didnt address was the impact of perchlorates, a toxic, corrosive chemical thought to be widespread in Martian soils.

David Eldridge at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, says that if the moss is to truly thrive, it will eventually need some relief from extreme cold and desiccation, but on Mars, unlike Earth, such conditions are unrelenting.

If there is one plant that is capable of living on Mars, it is that moss, he says. Eldridge suspects, however, that humans could take them to Mars put them on the surface and they would continue to be alive, but barely. It might survive, but I doubt it would thrive, he says.

Sharon Robinson at the University of Wollongong, Australia, says that although the plant could survive, it isnt entirely clear why we would want to take the moss to Mars. We cant eat them, although if they were photosynthesising they might be able to make a bit of oxygen, she says. Alternatively, the moss could be a home for tardigrades, an equally hardy species.

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Moss that survives deep freeze and radiation could live on Mars - New Scientist

In a meteor crater on the red planet, a solitary robot is moving about. Right now it is probably collecting soil samples with a drill and a robotic arm, as it has quite a habit of doing. NASA's Curiosity rover has been active on Mars as the extended arm of science for nearly 12 years, and it continues to make discoveries that surprise and challenge scientists' understanding of both Mars and our own world here on Earth.

Most recently, the discovery of sedimentary organic material with particular properties has had many researchers scratching their heads. The properties of these carbon-based materials, in particular the ratio of its carbon isotopes, surprised researchers.

Organic materials with such properties, if found on Earth, would typically be a sign of microorganisms, but they can also be the result of non-biological, chemical processes. The find obviously had researchers scrambling for a clear answer, but nothing seemed to fit.

However, for the research collaboration behind a new study published inNature Geoscience, there has been little hair scratching and much enthusiasm.

In fact, the discovery on Mars provided the missing piece that made everything fall into place for this group of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

As co-author and chemistry professor Matthew Johnson puts it, it is "the smoking gun" needed to confirma decade-old theory of his about so-called photolysis in Mars' atmosphere.

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With the Curiosity sample, the new research is able to prove with reasonable certainty that the Sun broke down CO2in the Martian atmosphere billions of years agoas the old theory predicted. And that the resulting carbon monoxide gradually reacted with other chemicals in the atmosphere synthesizing complex moleculesand thus providing Mars with organic materials.

Such carbon-based complex molecules are the prerequisite of life, the building blocks of life one might say. So, this it is a bit like the old debate about which came first, the chicken or the egg. We show that the organic material found on Mars has been formed through atmospheric photochemical reactionswithout life that is. This is the 'egg', a prerequisite of life. It still remains to be shown whether or not this organic materialresulted in life on the Red Planet." said Johnson and continued:

Additionally because Earth, Mars, and Venus had very similar CO2-rich atmospheres long ago when this photolysis took place, it can also prove important for our understanding of how life began on Earth, said Professor Matthew Johnson from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen.

12 years ago Johnson and two colleagues used simulations based on quantum mechanics to determine what happens when a CO2-rich atmosphere is exposed to the UV light of the Sun, in a process known as photolysis.

Basically, on Mars around 20 percent of the CO2 is split into oxygen and carbon monoxide. But carbon has two stable isotopes: carbon-12 and carbon-13. Usually, they are present in a ratio of one carbon-13 for every 99 carbon-12. However, photolysis works faster for the lighter carbon-12, so the carbon monoxide produced by photolysis has less carbon-13 (is depleted), and the leftover CO2 has more (is enriched).

Because of this, Johnson and his colleagues were able to make very precise predictions of the ratio of carbon isotopes after photolysis. And this gave them two distinctive fingerprints to look for. One of these was identified in a different Martian sample, years ago.

We actually have a piece of Mars here on Earth, which was knocked off that planet by a meteorite, and then became one itself, when it landed here on Earth. This meteorite, called Allan Hills 84001 for the place in Antarctica where it was found, contains carbonate minerals that form from CO2 in the atmosphere. The smoking gun here is that the ratio of carbon isotopes in it exactly matches our predictions in the quantum chemical simulations, but there was a missing piece in the puzzle. We were missing the other product of this chemical process to confirm the theory, and that's what we've now obtained," says Matthew Johnson.

The carbon in the Allan Hills meteorite is enriched in carbon-13, which makes it the mirror image of the depletion in carbon-13 that has now been measured in the organic material found by Curiosity on Mars.

The new study has thus linked data from two samples, which researchers believe have the same origin in Mars' childhood but were found more than 50 million kilometers apart.

There is no other way to explain both the carbon-13 depletion in the organic material and the enrichment in the Martian meteorite, both relative to the composition of volcanic CO2 emitted on Mars, which has a constant composition, similar as for Earths volcanos, and serves as a baseline, said Johnson

Because the organic material contains this isotopic fingerprint of where it came from, researchers are able to trace the source of the carbon in the organic material to the carbon monoxide formed by photolysis in the atmosphere. But this also reveals a lot about what happened to it in between.

This shows that carbon monoxide is the starting point for the synthesis of organic molecules in these kinds of atmospheres. So we have an important conclusion about the origin of lifes building blocks. Although so far only on Mars, said Matthew Johnson.

Researchers hope to find the same isotopic evidence on Earth, but this has yet to happen, and it could be a much bigger challenge because our geological development has changed the surface significantly compared to Mars, Johnson explains.

"It is reasonable to assume that the photolysis of CO2 was also a prerequisite for the emergence of life here on Earth, in all its complexity. But we have not yet found this smoking gun material here on Earth to prove that the process took place. Perhaps because Earth's surface is much more alive, geologically and literally, and therefore constantly changing. But it is a big step that we have now found it on Mars, from a time when the two planets were very similar," says Matthew Johnson.

- This press release was originally published on the University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science website and has been edited for style and clarity

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Organic Material from Mars Reveals the Likely Origin of Lifes Building Blocks - Lab Manager Magazine

In terms of being hard-to-kill, few animals are more resilient than the tiny tardigrade. But the water bear isnt the planets only nearly indestructible, extremotolerant living organisman assuming desert moss known as Syntrichia caninervis can survive in some of the most inhospitable environments. Regardless of blistering heat, punishing cold, aridity, cloud cover, or radiation, S. caninervis can likely withstand the otherwise deadly conditions. And according to researchers, thats what makes the plant a perfect Martian transplant.

In a paper published June 1 in the journal The Innovation, a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) argues S. caninervis is a promising pioneer plant for colonizing extraterrestrial environments, especially in scenarios like establishing a permanent base on another planet.

[Related: How super resilient tardigrades can fix their radiation-damaged DNA.]

Many plans to establish human settlements on other planets focus on adapting crops to growth in controlled environments, arid ecology experts note in their paper abstract. However, these settlements will also require pioneer plants that can grow in the soils and harsh conditions found in extraterrestrial environments, such as those on Mars.

The arid ecology experts at CAS believe S. caninervis is an extremely promising nominee for one of these future pioneer plants. After obtaining both fully hydrated and dehydrated moss samples, the team put them through the ringerstoring them in -112 degree Fahrenheit freezers for 3-5 years, submerging them in a liquid nitrogen tank (-320 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15-30 days, and exposing them to upwards of 16,000 grays of gamma radiation at a time.

From there, S. caninervis samples were then moved into a simulated Martian environment, complete with UV radiation, atmospheric pressures, and low-oxygen levels consistent with the planets surface. Some moss fared better than others (plants dehydrated by as much as 98-percent bounced back more easily than fully hydrated ones, for example), but S. caninervis generally proved extremely capable of enduring Mars.

Researchers believe much of its resilience is owed to the evolutionary history of moss itself. Mosses are thought to be the very first embryophytes to spread across Earth on land, but in order to do that, the team writes these diminutive pioneer plants have evolved innate resistance to drought, UV radiation, and temperature fluctuations.

This is thanks to an intricate interplay of mosses physiological, morphological, and molecular adaptations. The twisting leaves of S. caninervis, for example, conserves water by reducing surface area and transpiration, while its cellular makeup is designed to handle extreme desiccation. At a molecular level, S. caninervis also contains high amounts of sucrose and maltose, even after intense stress. This helps it to maintain its cellular architecture under duress, with the sugars then offering the energy reserves needed to recover once conditions improve.

[Related: To create a small Mars colony, leave the jerks on Earth.]

Its important to note that even with all these impressive traits, its unlikely S. caninervis or most other mosses will ever become food staples for humans on Mars. That said, genetically engineering other plants to include these extremotolerant attributes may offer a promising way to strengthen them for Martian living. But even without any real nutrition value, moss like S. caninervis may help boost oxygen production, soil health, and carbon sequestration efforts, all of which will be necessary for humans to eventually thrive on Mars.

Although there is still a long way to go to create self-sufficient habitats on other planets, we demonstrated the great potential of S. caninervis, a model moss plant, as a pioneer plant for growth on Mars, the team writes.

Going forward, they hope to soon send S. caninervis samples to the moon, or even Mars, to begin testing real world tests.

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This inedible, indestructible moss may help humans thrive on Mars - Popular Science

From strange rocks on Mars to interstellar visitors, the cosmos is filled with mysteries that captivate and confound scientists and stargazers alike.

Over the years, numerous odd and unexplained objects have been discovered across the universe, challenging our understanding of the world we live in.

One of the most recent finds is a peculiar rock on Mars, which has left researchers puzzled over its origin and composition.

This discovery adds to a growing list of cosmic conundrums, encouraging scientists to dig deeper into the unknown.

Here, The National explores some of the most intriguing discoveries that the universe has to offer.

Astronomers detected a bizarre object passing through the solar system in 2017.

Named 'Oumuamua, a Hawaiian word that translates to a messenger from afar arriving first, it was the first object confirmed to have visited from another solar system.

Its elongated shape and unusual trajectory prompted immediate interest. Unlike typical asteroids or comets found within the solar system, 'Oumuamua did not behave as expected.

It showed non-gravitational acceleration, meaning it moved more quickly than gravity alone could explain, with scientists speculating about its nature.

'Oumuamua is of great interest, said Dimitra Atri, an astrophysicist at New York University Abu Dhabi.

It had a very unusual shape about 400 metres long and about 40 to 50 metres wide, unlike anything that weve seen before.

It also got a speed boost while it was near the Sun, which was likely due to outgassing, sort of like a rocket thruster when material (most likely hydrogen ice) on the object evaporated from sunlight.

Initially, some researchers suggested that 'Oumuamua might be a fragment of a comet pushed out from another star system.

However, its lack of a visible coma the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds a comet's nucleus puzzled scientists.

Others proposed that it could be a piece of an interstellar asteroid, but its rapid rotation and unusual shape made this explanation less likely.

One of the most interesting theories came from astronomers at Harvard University, who speculated that 'Oumuamua might be a probe sent by an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation.

Nasas Dawn spacecraft arrived at Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, in 2015.

As the spacecraft approached Ceres, it captured images of unusual bright spots on the dwarf planet's surface.

These bright areas, in the Occator Crater, stood out against Ceres' dark and rocky terrain.

Scientists initially thought that the bright spots might be ice deposits reflecting sunlight.

But detailed analysis revealed that the spots are made of sodium carbonate, a type of salt.

This discovery was surprising because it suggested that Ceres had experienced hydrothermal minerals that formed from hot liquids activity in the past.

The presence of these salts indicates that liquid water once existed beneath the surface, potentially providing a habitable environment for microbial life.

The exact origin of the bright spots is still being studied. Some scientists think they were formed by salty water erupting from inside Ceres, which then evaporated, leaving salt behind.

Others believe that asteroid or comet impacts might have caused the release of this underground salty water.

Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, is known for its stunning rings and moons.

But one of its most peculiar features is a massive hexagonal cloud pattern at its north pole.

First observed by the Voyager missions in the 1980s, this hexagonal storm has intrigued the science community for decades.

The hexagon is a vast structure, spanning nearly 32,000km across, and it rotates with the planet's atmosphere.

Unlike the more familiar circular storms seen on other planets, such as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's hexagon maintains its six-sided shape with remarkable precision.

This geometric storm is composed of a strong jet stream, with wind speeds reaching up to 321kph.

Researchers have proposed several theories to explain the hexagon's formation.

One study suggests that the shape is due to atmospheric rotation speeds at various latitudes, creating an unusual wave pattern.

Nasas Viking 1 orbiter took a photo of a region on Mars called Cydonia in 1971.

In this area, one rock formation looked like a human face, which quickly sparked speculation.

Some social media users even thought it might be a monument built by an ancient Martian civilisation.

But, later missions, including Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor and the European Space Agency's Mars Express, took clearer pictures that showed the face was just a natural rock formation.

The original photo's lighting and shadows made it look like a face, but it was an illusion.

Last month, a strange rock was discovered on Mars by Nasas Perseverance rover.

It has a highly reflective surface that glitters under the Martian sun.

Studies showed that it might contain high concentrations of metals not commonly found on the Red Planet.

The rock's location, at the edge of a dried-up lake bed, suggests it might have been transported by ancient water flows.

Scientists are eager to study it in more detail, as it could offer clues on Marss geological history and water activity that took place long time ago.

Updated: July 03, 2024, 3:00 AM

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Mysteries of space: From a 'face' on Mars to a visitor from another solar system - The National

ESA has published a new image obtained by the Mars Express spacecraft. The centerpiece of the image is an amazing feature: a dark uneven scar cutting through the terrain at the foot of a giant volcano.

This scar is known as Aganippe Fossa. Its length is about 600 kilometers. It is a graben a lowered area relative to the surrounding terrain with steep walls on either side.

Aganippe Fossa crosses the foot of one of the largest volcanoes on Mars, Arsia Mons. It is located in the region of the Tharsis: a vast highland that is home to the Red Planets largest supervolcanoes.

Arsia Mons has a base diameter of 435 km and rises above the surrounding plains by more than 9 km. And if measurements are made relative to the zero altitude of Mars, it will be 19 km. In comparison, the highest dormant volcano on Earth, Ojos del Salado (it is located on the border of Argentina and Chile) reaches a height of less than 7 kilometers.

Scientists still dont know how and when the Aganippe Fossa originated. But it seemed likely that it was formed when magma beneath the colossal mass of volcanoes in the Tharsis caused the crust of Mars to stretch and crack.

The Mars Express image captures two different types of terrain: so-called hummocky terrain, consisting of many irregularly shaped hills and valleys clustered together, and lobate terrain, consisting of gentle cliffs and rocky debris.

These reliefs are characteristic of the ring-shaped aureole of Arsia Mons, a 100,000 km2 disk around the base of the volcano, possibly associated with ancient glaciers. Interestingly, the aureole only formed on the northwestern flank of the volcano, probably because prevailing winds from the opposite direction influenced where the ice settled over time.

Wind-blown dust and sand has also impacted this region of Mars, creating interesting zebra-like patterns. They occurred when dark material was deposited on lighter colored soil and vice versa. The surface also shows traces of lava flows formed during volcanic activity.

Earlier we told you about how the Mars Express photographed the inhabitants of Inca City.

According to ESA

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Mars Express photographs a snake-shaped structure on Mars - The Universe. Space. Tech

In the wake of being informed that Utah State University intends to terminate his employment, Aggies football coach Blake Anderson retained the services of college sports attorney Tom Mars, ESPNs Pete Thamel reported Tuesday afternoon.

In a statement to ESPN, Mars said that USU faces an uphill battle to fire Anderson with cause.

Stiffing a head coach by blaming him for what his supervisor was supposed to do is a novel approach, but that theory will never hold up in court, Mars told Thamel.

Utah State alleged Tuesday that an external investigation determined that Anderson committed actions in the spring of 2023 that violated both his employment agreement and university policy and that were grounds for termination with cause.

Deputy athletic director Jerry Bovee and USU football director of player development Austin Albrecht were also dismissed from USU for alleged violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence and failures of professional responsibilities, as the Deseret News previously reported.

To comply with Utahs public records laws and Utah State University policies, the university noted that it cannot release any additional information until all opportunities (for Anderson) to respond and/or appeal have expired, which is a minimum of 14 days.

Mars is a nationally recognized attorney, with experience as a crisis consultant for companies, executives, and public officials, according to his website.

In the sports realm, Mars has dealt primarily with the NCAAs transfer rules, though he notably represented former Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt during a suit Houston Nutt v. University of Mississippi in which Nutt alleged a breach of contract by the University of Mississippi. Nutt got an undisclosed settlement in that case, along with a public apology from Ole Miss.

Anderson has been the head football coach at Utah State since late in 2020, when he was hired by then athletic director John Hartwell to replace Gary Andersen.

Anderson led USU to a Mountain West Conference championship in his first year in 2021, then followed up that performance with back-to-back 6-7 campaigns.

USU president Elizabeth Cantwell and athletic director Diana Sabau released a statement to university faculty and staff about Andersons pending termination on Tuesday.

As leaders, we are responsible for ensuring allegations of USU policy violations are investigated. Todays actions are the result of a thorough external investigation, and we believe the evidence demands immediate action. Our job is to fearlessly hold ourselves and others accountable for their conduct and to make sure that, for the sake of our students and our community, we are living the values of our university.

While recognizing the impact of these decisions on our student-athletes and football program, we will continue to take the steps necessary to deliver a respectful, transparent and winning culture at Utah State University.

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Blake Anderson responds to allegations, pending termination - Deseret News

Close-up of S. caninervis. Credit: John Game/Wikimedia Commons

At first glance, Syntrichia caninervis looks like a dust bunny or a gray, low-lying shrub. But this humble moss is known for surviving harsh conditions that most plants find uninhabitable, like the aridity of Antarctica and the Mojave Desert. Inspired by the plant's resilience, researchers have pushed S. caninervis to its limits and found that it can endure extreme cold, drought, and high levels of radiationthe conditions a plant would need to withstand to grow food on Mars.

In a paper published Monday in the scientific journal The Innovation, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) write that S. caninervis is a "promising pioneer plant for colonizing extraterrestrial environments." The moss is considered extremotolerant, a term frequently applied to tardigrades to testify to their near-invincibility. While most mosses require shade and abundant moisture to flourish, S. caninervis does things differently. It's evolved to withstand 98% water loss, conduct photosynthesis while covered with snow, and survive extremely low and extremely high temperatures, placing it "among the most stress tolerant organisms."

It just so happens that researchers have spent the last decade or so eagerly searching for ways to grow plants in space. Whether by sowing seeds in lunar soil or farming inside a simulative Mars habitat, everyone from NASA and the European Space Agency to educational institutions and Elon Musk wants to make extraterrestrial agriculture happen. It can't be overstated that this is a tough thing to succeed at; while we know Mars and the Moon don't offer the nurturing conditions we enjoy here on Earth, finding (or producing) the right plant for the job is another task entirely.

But what about reverse-engineering a Mars-worthy plant? Recognizing how uniquely rugged S. caninervis can be, the arid ecology experts at CAS decided to see how much strain the moss could survive. First, they obtained S. caninervis samples, some of which were left fully hydrated while others were intentionally dehydrated. The researchers placed samples from both groups in a freezer at -80 degrees Celsius (-112 Fahrenheit) for three to five years, in a liquid nitrogen storage tank at -196 Celsius (-320 Fahrenheit) for 15 to 30 days, and 500 to 16,000 grays of gamma radiation. Then, they transferred the samples to a sandbox subjected to Mars-like pressures, gases, and UV radiation.

Credit: Li et al, The Innovation/DOI 10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100657

Samples from all three exposure groups (freezer, nitrogen storage, and gamma radiation) successfully generated new branches. While some groups thrived more easily than othersdehydrated plants had an easier time recovering than plants that started out fully hydratedS. caninervis proved capable of bouncing back after enduring extremely low temperatures and levels of radiation similar to those they'd experience on Mars. The researchers also noted that an extra two years of exposure to cold temperatures didn't significantly affect S. caninervis regeneration.

Make no mistake: Like most mosses, S. caninervis isn't tasty and wouldn't make it onto a Martian menu. But, as the CAS researchers point out, S. caninervis could drive efforts to genetically engineer edible plants resistant to the Red Planet's harsh environment. The moss also appears to be a "promising candidate" in contributing to oxygen production, carbon sequestration, and soil fertility on extraterrestrial landsthree pieces of the long-term Mars colonization puzzle.

"Although there is still a long way to go to create self-sufficient habitats on other planets, we demonstrated the great potential of S. caninervis, a model moss plant, as a pioneer plant for growth on Mars," the researchers write. "Looking to the future, we expect that this promising moss could be brought to Mars or the Moon to further test the possibility of plant colonization and growth in outer space."

The rest is here:

Desert Moss Could Hold the Key to Growing Plants on Mars - ExtremeTech