Controversy Grows Over whether Mars Samples Endanger Earth

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Dear Reader, The closest thing to a holy grail in planetary science may be a project called Mars Sample Return. If robots can collect small bits of dirt and rock from Mars and send them back to study in Earth-based laboratories, researchers stand to learn much more than any analysis done in situ on the Red Planet. There's only one catch: what if the samples contaminate Earth? After all, one of the main reasons scientists are so keen to study Mars is to find out whether it does or ever did host microbial life. Because this possibility is far from ruled out, there is a chance, some argue, that bringing material back from Mars could introduce dangerous or invasive organisms to our home planet. Journalist Leonard David talks to scientists about just how careful they have to be when planning to transport pieces of Mars to Earth in our lead story. In other space and physics news this week, a new map of the Milky Way offers unprecedented information about stars' motions, colors, compositions and more, offering a treasure trove of data for astronomers hoping to trace the history of our galaxy. And a long-running mystery about the famous star Betelgeuse, part of the constellation Orion, may have been solved with a little help from a weather satellite. Read on for these stories and more!

Clara Moskowitz

Planetary Science Controversy Grows Over whether Mars Samples Endanger Earth Planetary scientists are eager to bring Red Planet rocks, soil and even air to Earth, but critics fear the risk of contaminating our world's biosphere  By Leonard David

Space Exploration New Maps of Milky Way Are Biggest and Best Yet The latest data release from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission is sparking a frenzy of exciting new astrophysics research By Sasha Warren

Astronomy Betelgeuse 'Great Dimming' Mystery Solved by Satellite Photobomb Images from Japan's Himawari-8 spacecraft shed light on the red supergiant star's remarkable fading By Allison Gasparini

Space Exploration Record-Breaking Voyager Spacecraft Begin to Power Down The pioneering probes are still running after nearly 45 years in space, but they will soon lose some of their instruments By Tim Folger

Quantum Physics Physicists Link Two Time Crystals in Seemingly Impossible Experiment A new demonstration of these exotic constructs could help bridge classical and quantum physics By Paul Sutter,LiveScience

Dark Matter Astronomers Might See Dark Matter by Staring into the Void Vast reaches of mostly empty space could offer superior odds for detecting the invisible substance thought to make up more than 80 percent of the material in the universe By Anil Ananthaswamy

Astronomy Webb Telescope's Giant Mirror Struck by Micrometeoroid The impact has slightly degraded one of the observatory's mirror segments, but NASA says the telescope has sustained no significant damage By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

FROM THE STORE Mars: A New Era of Exploration Was there ever life on Mars? Could life exist there? The latest of nearly 50 missions, NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is the opening shot of an ambitious plan to find answers. In this eBook, we look at the Red Planet: what we've learned from past rovers, the challenges of space travel and searching for life, proposals for how to make Mars livable and how Perseverance could change everything we know for decades to come.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "People have to have some kind of respect for the unknown. If you have that respect, then you can do a credible job, and the public is well-served by your caution." John Rummel, a retired astrobiologist who previously helmed NASA's "planetary protection" efforts for interplanetary missions, says of the possibilities for Mars life

FROM THE ARCHIVE Mars on the Cheap: Scientists Are Working to Revolutionize Access to the Red Planet The concepts include souped-up Mars helicopters and inexpensive orbiters and landers By Leonard David,SPACE.com | September 2021

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