The successful launch of Nasa’s Perseverance rover mission to Mars means an unprecedented flotilla of spacecraft is now headed for the Red Planet.
Led by the UAE’s Hope mission - which took off earlier this month, followed by China’s Tianwen-1 - the three probes will arrive next February and gather clues to the mystery of whether Mars has ever harboured life.
It is a question that has tantalised scientists for over 150 years, with the Red Planet playing a game of now you see it, now you don’t.
It began with supposed sightings of “canals” on the surface, conjuring up images of a race of alien engineers. In what has become something of a theme, these proved to be illusions which said more about the preconceptions of scientists than reality.
In the mid-1970s, Nasa landed two small laboratories designed to detect signs of life in the Martian soil. Some of the tests gave positive results, but sceptics claimed they came from lifeless chemical reactions.
But now there is growing excitement that scientists are finally closing in on the answer. And it comes from changing the question. Instead of asking if there's life on Mars, attention is focusing on whether there's life in it.
It has long been clear that the surface of Mars is a very hostile place. Even in summer, the typical daytime temperature is -43°C , plunging to -90°C at night. Its thin atmosphere is choked with carbon dioxide and its surface is blasted by ultraviolet light.
Could life be lurking under the surface of Mars?
It is hard to imagine any life-forms thriving in such an environment. But recent missions to Mars have revealed more benign conditions below-ground, including the existence of liquid water – widely regarded as vital for the existence of life.
Along with shelter from temperature extremes and radiation, life-forms have a better chance of surviving inside Mars than on its surface.
But they also need some source of energy capable of keeping them alive. For humans, it’s called food – whose energy ultimately comes from sunlight. Deprived of that, organisms sheltering inside Mars have to find some other source of energy – but what ?
As reported earlier this week, an intriguing answer has now been put forward by a researcher at New York University Abu Dhabi.
According to Dr Dimitra Atri, radiation from deep space known as galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) may smash through the top few metres of the Martian surface. Made up of fast-moving sub-atomic particles, GCRs could trigger chemical reactions from which life-forms can extract the energy they need.
The bizarre idea of organisms using radiation to stay alive is backed by the discovery of life-forms deep inside our own planet. In 2008, researchers reported finding bacteria in the pitch blackness 2.8 km underground in a South African goldmine.
Deprived of any source of sunlight-based energy for millions of years, they had found a way of extracting energy from chemical reactions triggered by the natural radioactivity of the surrounding rock.
New missions could unravel mysteries
Are life-forms lurking inside Mars doing something similar using cosmic radiation ? Intriguing hints have been detected by several Mars missions, in the form of bursts of methane gas emerging from the surface. Methane is a highly reactive gas whose main source on Earth is bacteria.
In 2018, Nasa announced that its Curiosity Mars rover had found methane concentrations peaked in the summer and then declined in winter. The cause is still being investigated, but one possibility is the seasonal ebb and flow of Martian bacteria living off cosmic radiation.
The probes now en route to the Red Planet may help resolve such mysteries. While not designed to detect life directly, the UAE’s Hope orbiter will provide detailed insights into the planet’s atmosphere – including seasonal changes.
Nasa’s mission aims to land the car-sized Perseverance rover into a crater and use radar, camera and other instruments to look for signs of life. It will also collect samples for return to Earth by a future mission, and fly a mini helicopter over the area.
Meanwhile, China’s Tianwen-1 mission to Mars - the nation’s first - has an orbiter, lander and a rover and will carry out a broad survey of the planet, including analysis of soil samples.
The discoveries made by all three probes will then feed into the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission, set for launch in 2022.
This will attempt to land a rover on the planet capable of drilling up to two metres into the surface, and test the soil samples for signs of organic molecules linked to the existence of life.
This will put the idea of life in Mars to its first proper test. And it is just possible the results will put an end to the guessing game the Red Planet has teased us with for so long.
Robert Matthews is Visiting Professor of Science at Aston University, Birmingham, UK
ALL THE RESULTS
Bantamweight
Siyovush Gulmomdov (TJK) bt Rey Nacionales (PHI) by decision.
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) bt Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR) by submission.
Catch 74kg
Omar Hussein (JOR) bt Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) by decision.
Strawweight (Female)
Seo Ye-dam (KOR) bt Weronika Zygmunt (POL) by decision.
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.
Lightweight
Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.
Welterweight
Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.
Bantamweight
Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR) no contest.
Lightweight
Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.
Welterweight
Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.
Featherweight title bout
Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) by KO round 1.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
