| In this week’s newsletter, discover how a sample collected by the Perseverance Mars rover from an ancient dry riverbed could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life; find out when and where to watch the launch of NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23 mission to the International Space Station; and launch your name around the Moon with the crew of Artemis II. Plus, more stories you might have missed. |
| SCIENCE Potential Sign of Ancient Life  |
| A sample collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover from an ancient dry riverbed in Jezero Crater could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life. Taken from a rock named “Cheyava Falls” last year, the sample, called “Sapphire Canyon,” contains potential biosignatures—a substance or structure that might have a biological origin—according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature. “This finding is the direct result of NASA’s effort to strategically plan, develop, and execute a mission able to deliver exactly this type of science—the identification of a potential biosignature on Mars,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With the publication of this peer-reviewed result, NASA makes this data available to the wider science community for further study to confirm or refute its biological potential.” The rover’s science instruments found that the formation’s sedimentary rocks are composed of clay and silt, which, on Earth, are excellent preservers of past microbial life. They also are rich in organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron (rust), and phosphorous. SEEKING SIGNS OF ANCIENT LIFE |
 | THE UNIVERSECelestial Accident Why has silicon, one of the most common elements in the universe, gone largely undetected in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and similar gas planets orbiting other stars? A new study using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope sheds light on this question by focusing on a peculiar object that astronomers discovered by chance in 2020. PECULIAR BROWN DWARF |
| HUMANS IN SPACE Space Station Resupply NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting 6:11 p.m. EDT, Sunday, Sept. 14, for the launch of NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23 mission to the International Space Station. Filled with more than 11,000 pounds of supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Live coverage will begin on NASA+ at 5:50 p.m. EDT. LAUNCH COVERAGE |  |
 THE UNIVERSE Habitable-Zone Exoplanet Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, planet e is of particular interest because it orbits the star at a distance where water on the surface is theoretically possible, but only if the planet has an atmosphere. That’s where the James Webb Space Telescope comes in. LEARN MORE |  EARTH Keeping Current Because most global trade travels by ship, accurate, timely ocean forecasts are essential. These forecasts provide crucial information about storms, high winds, and rough water, and they depend on measurements provided by instruments in the ocean and by satellites including Sentinel-6B, a joint mission led by NASA and the European Space Agency that will provide essential sea level and other ocean data after it launches this November. LEARN MORE |
| More NASA News |
 | With Artemis II, NASA is taking the science of living and working in space beyond low Earth orbit. While the test flight will help confirm the systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, the crew also will be serving as both scientists and volunteer research subjects, completing a suite of experiments that will allow the agency to better understand how human health may change in deep space environments. |
 | Dragonfly, a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft being designed and built for NASA at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, will explore Saturn’s moon Titan. Following launch and a six-year journey to Titan, the Dragonfly rotorcraft will spend over three years investigating multiple landing sites across the moon’s diverse surface. |
 | From 2018 to 2023, Uruguay experienced its worst drought in nearly a century. Government leaders declared an emergency and began identifying backup supplies and asked, “Was there water left in other upstream reservoirs that could help?” Using NASA satellite data and trainings, Uruguay created a drought-response tool that its National Water Authority now uses to monitor reservoirs and guide emergency decisions. A similar approach could be applied in the United States and other countries around the world. |
| ARTEMIS Send Your Name Artemis II will test NASA’s deep space capabilities as humans fly on the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for the first time. Join the mission by launching your name around the Moon alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. ARTEMIS II BOARDING PASS |  |
| Do You Know? |
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| 63 years ago on September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered an iconic speech at Rice University in Houston, calling America to rise to the challenge of space exploration. |
| By what informal name is this speech best known? A. “We choose to go to the Moon” B. “The city upon a hill” C. “Urgent national needs” D. “Ask not what your country can do for you” E. “Why does Rice play Texas?” |
| Find out the answer in next week’s NASA newsletter! |
 | Last week, we asked which NASA mission delivered George Carruthers’ Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph to the Moon. The answer? NASA’s Apollo 16 mission! Astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr. unstowed the observatory from the Apollo 16 lunar module and placed it on the lunar surface. The golden instrument was used to study Earth and other targets as seen in the ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. 178 frames of film from the telescope were returned to Earth for study in April 1972. |
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| Do you have a telescope? Would you like to see some of the same night sky objects from the ground that Hubble has seen from space? We invite you to commemorate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th anniversary by accepting our yearlong stargazing challenge! New challenge objects will be featured weekly. This week’s object is Messier 27, also referred to as the Dumbbell Nebula. Spotted by Charles Messier in 1764, Messier 27 was the first planetary nebula ever discovered. The term “planetary nebula” is a bit of a misnomer based on the nebula’s round, planet-like appearance when viewed through smaller telescopes. The nebula is the result of an old, dying star that shed its outer layers in a glowing display of color. Messier 27 resides more than 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula and is visible with a small telescope. JOIN THE CELEBRATION |
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