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<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA launched Europa Clipper to see if <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oxygen-europa-life-surface-ocean-subsurface-earth-juno-mission-jupiter-2024-3">Jupiter's moon Europa</a> could host alien life.</li><li>Scientists think Europa contains a vast saltwater ocean deep beneath its surface.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA is serious about searching for alien life</a>, even within our own solar system.On Monday, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the agency launched a spacecraft toward Europa, a moon of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-images-webb-sees-rings-moons-hubble-cant-2022-8">Jupiter</a>.Scientists believe Europa contains a vast saltwater ocean deep beneath its icy crust, with twice as much water as Earth. It's perhaps the most promising place in our solar system for active <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">extraterrestrial life</a>.<div type="image" title="Europa" height="1700" width="2300" msid="114225773" hostid="261" sizebytes="181080"></div>The NASA mission, called Europa Clipper, aims to figure out whether <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-lava-from-moon-volcanoes-creates-jupiters-powerful-aurora-lights-2022-2">the Jupiter moon</a> and its ocean could support life. It's the largest interplanetary spacecraft NASA has ever built. The probe is about 16 feet tall and, when its vast wings of solar arrays are deployed, 100 feet wide. It weighs three-and-a-half tons.Clipper is undertaking the first targeted exploration of an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-underwater-rover-hunt-alien-life-on-ocean-worlds-2019-11">ocean world</a> beyond our planet.Even if there is no life on Europa, this mission is crucial in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">search for alien life</a>, since ocean worlds across the galaxy are prime candidates for life.Missions like Europa Clipper are "modern cathedrals" and "generational quests," said Laurie Leshin, the director of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-helicopter-pilot-what-job-is-like-advice-2023-1">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>, which built the spacecraft.<div type="image" title="giant spacecraft folded up between red Airbus panels with a large round foil-covered piece on the front with technicians in blue clean suits standing nearby in a giant white clearnroom" height="1280" width="1920" msid="114225774" hostid="261" sizebytes="132976"></div>"We scientists have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more than 20 years. We've been working to build it for 10 years," she added in a briefing about the mission in September. "It's going to be another 10 years, because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-animation-planetary-scientist-huge-solar-system-2019-11">Jupiter's so far away</a>, until we have all the science in the bag."The spacecraft must travel 1.8 billion miles to get to Jupiter, getting a boost from Mars's gravity along the way. It's scheduled to arrive in April 2030.<h2 id="ccd765aa-2885-424c-ab06-309d5a9fdb77">A 7-body problem and unfathomable radiation</h2>Life exists without sunlight at the bottom of the ocean here on Earth. All it needs is an energy source, like hydrothermal vents which release heat from deep within the planet, and organic molecules containing essential elements like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen.Europa Clipper is carrying nine scientific instruments to look for the fingerprints of those molecules, measure the salinity and depth of the underground ocean, and take photos of Europa down to one meter of resolution, among other things.<div type="image" title="illustration of a spacecraft with long wings of solar panels above a white moon covered in crisis crossed brown lines with jupiter in the distant background in space" height="1121" width="1995" msid="114225771" hostid="261" sizebytes="107104"></div>"Clipper is not actually going to look for life itself, but it's going to characterize the habitability of Europa," Gina DiBraccio, the acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in the briefing.The mission is designed to orbit Jupiter and fly past Europa 49 times, each time soaring over a different area to eventually cover almost the entire moon, pole to pole. The spacecraft will skim as close as 16 miles above Europa's surface.The mission plan is a marvel of engineering. Rather than a three-body problem, falling into orbit around Jupiter is a "seven-body problem" because of the planet's large moons, Jordan Evans, the mission's project manager, said in the briefing.During each flyby, Clipper will bathe in radiation from Jupiter that's equivalent to "a few million chest X-rays," Evans added.It might even find out if Europa's ice really <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-jupiter-oceanic-moon-europa-radioactive-glow-2020-11">glows in the dark from that radiation</a>, as NASA research has previously indicated.

NASA launches a probe to find out if there really could be alien life on Jupiter's moon Europa

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's Perseverance rover has found potential evidence of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">ancient microbial life on Mars</a>.</li><li>Scientists must bring the rock to Earth for further study, but three key features make it promising.</li></ul>NASA has snagged a chunk of rock on Mars that could someday prove to be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">the first clear evidence of alien life</a>.To be clear, NASA is not declaring that it's discovered Martian life. Rather, its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-first-mars-sample-mysteriously-missing-2021-8">Perseverance rover has drilled a sample from a rock</a> with attributes that could have come from ancient microbial activity, the agency announced Thursday.To confirm their suspicions, scientists would need to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">bring the rock sample to Earth</a> and study it in more detail."This is exactly the kind of sample that we wanted to find," Katie Stack Morgan, a lead scientist on the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-from-nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-2021-2">Perseverance mission</a>, told Business Insider.<h2 id="8f9afd20-4848-4691-a11e-024987bef6aa">3 key features could point to alien life</h2><div type="image" title="reddish rock on mars with a drill hole surrounded by dirt beside a patch of white dust" height="3502" width="8192" msid="112054808" hostid="261" sizebytes="2623576"></div>The rock, nicknamed Cheyava Falls, has three critical features:<ul><li>First, white veins of calcium sulfate are clear evidence that water once ran through it.</li><li>Second, the rock tested positive for organic compounds, which are the carbon-based building blocks of life, as we know it.</li><li>Third, it's speckled with tiny "leopard spots" that point to chemical reactions that are associated with microbial life here on Earth.</li></ul><div type="image" title="rocky mars ground with red strip in the middle speckled with off-white leopard spots with black outlines" height="1200" width="1648" msid="112054810" hostid="261" sizebytes="204828"></div>However, both the organic material and the leopard spots could have come from non-biological processes. That's why scientists need to study the sample more closely on Earth to know for sure.The rover has reached the limit of what it can learn about the rock."We're not saying there's life on Mars, but we're seeing something that is compelling as a potential biosignature," Stack Morgan said.A biosignature is any feature that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-may-have-accidentally-spread-life-to-mars-scientist-says-2021-5">points to the presence of life</a>."This is a very significant discovery," she added.It's a much-needed win for the space agency. In recent months, NASA has taken hit after hit from budget limitations and technical errors across missions.<h2 id="ffbc8916-53bf-4e09-9d46-a0a92e0c9401">NASA needs this win</h2>Earlier this year, the agency's first <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">attempt to return to the moon </a>since 1972 failed. The NASA-funded Peregrine moon mission, by the company Astrobotic suffered a fuel leak shortly after launch, forcing it to return to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. (The next attempt, a mission by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-im-1-odysseus-moon-lunar-landing-mission-nasa-2024-2">company Intuitive Machines</a>, also funded by NASA, successfully landed on the moon.)Then, new budgeting decisions came down. NASA's budget proposal for 2025 effectively <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-chandra-xray-space-telescope-nasa-might-defund-2024-4">defunds the Chandra X-ray Observatory</a>, which is still a highly productive and functional mission.And just last week, NASA officials announced they were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scrapping-moon-rover-it-spent-450-million-to-build-2024-7">scrapping the VIPER moon rover</a> that the agency has already spent $450 million to build. NASA plans to disassemble it and reuse some of the parts for future moon missions.Meanwhile, two astronauts have been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-speak-out-boeing-starliner-spaceship-issues-space-station-2024-7">stuck on the International Space Station</a> for 51 days because the NASA-funded Boeing spaceship that carried them there is leaking helium and having thruster malfunctions.Even Perseverance wasn't spared. In April, NASA announced it was canceling its $11 billion plan to send a follow-up mission, called Mars Sample Return, to collect the rover's tubes of Martian rock and carry them back to Earth. That was the plan that could've brought scientists the Cheyava Falls rock sample.Instead, NASA is <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">asking companies to step in</a> and propose their own cheaper, faster versions of the mission.<div type="image" title="mosaic of photos of light-saber-like sample tubes on the martian surface" height="1608" width="2860" msid="112054812" hostid="261" sizebytes="489456"></div>The Cheyava Falls rock especially needs the extra studying."This rock is also one of the most complex rocks we've seen on the surface of Mars. There is a lot going on in this rock," Stack Morgan said.<h2 id="bc7264ec-ecef-4ece-be0b-2d817095cffe">Is it aliens? Check the CoLD scale</h2>For now, this discovery is just a "step one" on the seven-step "confidence of life detection" (CoLD) scale.The CoLD scale is a rough rating of scientific confidence in any potential alien-life discovery.<div type="image" title="illustration of a line of scientists in white lab coats building a tall stepped wall of green bricks with numbers 1 through 7 going up the side of it to the top, indicating stages of confirming evidence of alien life. the illustration is labeled &quot;CoLD SCALE&quot;" height="2550" width="3300" msid="112054809" hostid="261" sizebytes="266750"></div>"We've taken us up to the start of that scale, and I think that's what the rover was sent to Mars to do," Stack Morgan said.A possible biosignature can climb to higher levels of confidence as evidence builds. For example, if scientists can confirm that known non-biological processes didn't create the leopard spots, the Cheyava Falls rock might ascend to step two or three.But they need to get the sample to Earth first. And NASA needs to figure out how to do that."We're hoping that our most recent sample can play into the conversation about whether this effort is worth it," Stack Morgan said. "And we believe that it is."

NASA just scored a badly needed win: The best potential evidence of alien life yet

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Researchers found seven stars in our galaxy that might host alien megastructures called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-megastructure-circling-giant-star-isnt-a-dyson-sphere-but-a-swarm-2016-9">Dyson spheres</a>.</li><li>But these stars' strange behavior could also be explained by other phenomena, like clouds of dust.</li></ul>In the search for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-on-nearby-stars-planets-could-see-earth-life-2020-10">intelligent alien life</a>, finding a Dyson sphere would be like hitting the jackpot. Theoretically, super-advanced alien societies could build these giant, ultra-high-tech megastructures around their host stars to harness solar energy.Scientists have yet to find proof that Dyson spheres exist. But if they are real, we should be able to spot them, and researchers have been hunting for decades ever since <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-physicist-freeman-dyson-death-age-2020-2">physicist Freeman Dyson</a> first theorized the idea in 1960.Now, research published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has identified seven <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-discover-fastest-runaway-stars-in-milky-way-galaxy-2023-6">stars in our galaxy</a> that exhibit some unusual behavior, which the team can't easily explain with natural phenomenon.<h2 id="0b3793df-2f40-4597-9e8c-2c4e99e9f214">What exactly is a Dyson sphere?</h2><div type="image" title="A star surrounded by a Dyson sphere floats between a ringed planet in the background and a blue planet in the foreground" height="1800" width="2400" msid="111323502" hostid="261" sizebytes="156896"></div>Despite what the name suggests, a Dyson sphere isn't necessarily one solid sphere that encases a star, although the most advanced ones could be.Most likely, "these are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-starlink-satellites-could-help-deplete-ozone-layer-study-2024-6">satellites</a> with very broad surfaces floating around the star," Suman Majumdar, study co-author and associate professor of astronomy, astrophysics, and space engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, told Business Insider.This design would grant an intelligent society access to an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-based-solar-panels-could-power-earth-2014-7">unlimited energy source</a>, allowing their population and industry to grow exponentially, according to Dyson's original theory.<div type="image" title="An artistic illustration of a Dyson sphere" height="2000" width="2400" msid="111323495" hostid="261" sizebytes="270090"></div>The design also means there would be gaps between the satellites where some of the star's radiation could sneak through. And the rest of the light, the satellites would absorb and re-radiate back into space as pulses of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-spitzer-space-telescope-is-retiring-after-16-years-2020-1">infrared radiation</a> known as infrared excess emissions, or IEEs, which could be a way of detecting a distant Dyson sphere from Earth.For their study, Majumdar and colleagues analyzed more than 5 million stars throughout <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/we-live-inside-cosmic-void-breaks-cosmology-laws-2024-5">the Milky Way</a> that exhibit IEEs. But Dyson spheres aren't the only possible explanation.<div type="image" title="A young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk" height="1322" width="2266" msid="111323504" hostid="261" sizebytes="271628"></div>"There's a lot of reasons that stars might have extra infrared emission. Typically, it's because they're extremely young, and they have a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-captured-rare-photo-of-baby-planets-growing-around-star-2019-7">protoplanetary disk</a>," which is a disk of rotating gas and dust around a new star that radiates infrared light, Jason Wright, study co-author and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, told BI.There are other natural explanations for IEEs, too. That's why the research team had to rule out so many stars from their original list of 5 million Dyson sphere candidates, eventually leaving them with seven that exhibit IEEs they can't easily explain and that could, potentially, host these <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-solution-alien-megastructure-tabbys-star-2019-9">alien megastructures</a>. However, future research will need to rule out all other possible explanations first.<h2 id="8f78a78b-b8da-4723-8369-29131e1bd730">Hunting for Dyson spheres</h2><div type="image" title="Gaia satellite against a black background" height="2480" width="3508" msid="111323499" hostid="261" sizebytes="292454"></div>To identify these seven strong Dyson sphere candidates, the researchers used a computer system to sift through a mountain of data collected by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-dark-matter-hurricane-blasting-past-earth-2018-11">Gaia</a>. This European Space Agency satellite is creating a three-dimensional map of more than a billion stars in our galaxy and beyond.Data from this highly comprehensive survey allowed the research team to select <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/map-of-milky-way-galaxy-by-gaia-spacecraft-2018-4">a pool of millions of stars</a> that exhibit IEEs and gradually weed out all the ones that could be explained by natural phenomena."It took more than a year to go through this," Majumdar said.Without Gaia and the massive amount of data it collects, this study wouldn't have been possible.<div type="image" title="Gaia image of the entire sky" height="313" width="625" msid="111323493" hostid="261" sizebytes="5596"></div>"I'm really excited for this big data era, like all the big surveys that are coming out — all the things we can learn from this data by looking at it in different ways," Tabetha Boyajian, an associate professor of astrophysics at Louisiana State University who did not work on this study, told BI.Next, the researchers will look closer at these seven strong Dyson sphere candidates using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rare-diamond-contains-a-mineral-never-seen-in-nature-2018-3">spectroscopic analysis</a>, Majumdar said. This technique can reveal new information about the radiation these stars emit, and help the researchers rule out other possible explanations for their IEEs."It would take a lot of rigor to be able to say confidently that this is not something that nature is doing, it's something that an advanced civilization is doing," Boyajian said.In the meantime, Gaia continues its survey, populating the database with even more stars for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronome-alien-megastructure-dont-rule-out-aliens-2016-2">Dyson sphere hunters</a> like Majumdar and Wright, so their search is far from over. In fact, it might just be getting started."The same analysis can be actually done on the newer candidates that are populating the catalog," Majumdar said.

At least 7 stars in our galaxy have the potential to harbor advanced alien technology, researchers find

Every 'Alien' movie ranked from worst to best, including 'Alien: Romulus'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"Alien: Romulus" follows a group of scavengers as they break into a derelict space station.</li><li>But the crew discovers Xenomorphs in the station and have to fight to escape.</li></ul>"<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-romulus-ending-explained-end-credits-scene-2024-8">Alien: Romulus</a>" is the latest chapter in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/every-alien-movie-ranked-best-worst">"Alien" franchise</a>, which started with the original 1979 "Alien." But the 2024 movie makes it clear where it takes place in the timeline.The film leans heavily on practical effects to bring the terrifying Xenomorphs to life in the claustrophobic story. It follows a crew of scavengers who break into a derelict space station to steal supplies in order to travel to a new, peaceful planet.Once inside, they discover that the corporation that owned the station was experimenting with the monstrous creatures, and it isn't long before they're fleeing for their lives.In fact, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-romulus-isabela-merced-disgusting-scene-explained-2024-8">one "Alien: Romulus" scene was so disturbing</a> that the crew couldn't even watch it back, according to actor Isabela Merced.It's understandable that some fans might wonder when "Alien: Romulus" takes place in the "Alien" timeline because this is the ninth movie in the franchise.Thankfully, the opening scene clears things up before the crew starts getting butchered.<h2 id="f88ee79d-f418-483a-8f9b-52686ffdb425">"Alien: Romulus" takes place in between the events of "Alien" and "Aliens."</h2><div type="image" title="A man with dark hair in a blue shirt with his hand on a big white rifle held by a woman with brown hair in a white corridor." height="2412" width="4603" msid="112634505" hostid="261" sizebytes="2524298"></div>The film kicks off with a ship owned by Weyland-Yutani, the nefarious corporation at the heart of the franchise, as it flies toward a huge field of debris in space.As the torch illuminates the wreckage, the light reveals that it's actually the Nostromo — the ship from the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-movie-cast-then-and-now-actors">first "Alien" movie</a>.This establishes the fact that "Alien: Romulus" takes place roughly 20 years after the original film, which saw <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sigourney-weaver-ellen-ripley-alien-movie-ship-sailed-2023-4">Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)</a> activate the Nostromo's self-destruct system in an attempt to kill the Xenomorph. Although the alien escaped into the shuttle with Ripley, she eventually booted it out of the airlock.The new film establishes that Weyland-Yutani was able to retrieve its body to start running experiments on the creature."Alien" takes place in 2122, which puts "Alien: Romulus" in 2142. James Cameron's sequel "Aliens" is set in 2179.This makes the 2024 movie an "interquel" since it is both a sequel to the original film and a prequel to Cameron's follow-up, which was originally released in 1986.Considering "Alien: Romulus" made $108 million worldwide in its opening weekend, it's highly likely that the executives at 20th Century Studios and Disney are already considering how to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-romulus-sequel-2024-8">continue the story with a sequel</a>.Beyond future movie plans, there's already an "Alien" TV series from "Fargo" creator Noah Hawley in the works. Per <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://deadline.com/2024/04/alien-series-noah-hawley-cast-foundation-actress-sandra-yi-sencindiver-weyland-yutani-1235890023/">Deadline</a>, the show is set toward the end of the 21st century, a few years before the events of "Prometheus."

'Alien: Romulus' is both a sequel and a prequel. Here's how it fits into the 'Alien' timeline.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is collecting samples that could be evidence of ancient alien life.</li><li>But <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-plan-to-bring-perseverance-rover-mars-samples-to-earth-2021-9">NASA's Mars Sample Return mission to bring them to Earth</a> will now cost $11 billion and take two decades.</li></ul>NASA bit off more than it could chew when it sent the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-from-nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-2021-2">Perseverance rover to Mars</a> to collect samples.The $2.4 billion mission <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">landed the rover in Jezero Crater</a>, the site of an ancient lake. It's the ideal spot to search for the fossils of Martian microbes that may have existed when the planet was lush with lakes and rivers.<div type="image" title="jezero crater river delta mars perseverance rover landing site" height="1894" width="2000" msid="109325207" hostid="261" sizebytes="368934"></div>Perseverance's main mission is to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-first-mars-sample-mysteriously-missing-2021-8">collect samples</a> of the rock and sediment along the lake bed and the crater rim, in hopes of finding a sign that life once thrived on the red planet. The rover has done a fine job — so far it's secured 24 samples — but NASA no longer knows how it's going to bring them to Earth for analysis.<div type="image" title="mosaic of photos of light-saber-like sample tubes on the martian surface" height="1608" width="2860" msid="109325271" hostid="261" sizebytes="489456"></div>NASA's original design for the retrieval mission, called Mars Sample Return, has fallen apart. The agency is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">asking companies to step in</a> and propose better ideas."We are looking at out-of-the-box possibilities that could return the samples earlier and at a lower cost," Nicola Fox, head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a press briefing on Monday. "This is definitely a very ambitious goal. We're going to need to go after some very innovative new possibilities for design, and certainly leave no stone unturned."<h2>NASA's old plan costs $11 billion and takes too long</h2><div type="image" title="perseverance rover robotic arm holds up golden tube for coring samples against mars plains background" height="1161" width="1595" msid="109325273" hostid="261" sizebytes="42616"></div>NASA's original proposal for the Mars Sample Return is "mind-bendingly complicated," David Parker, director of space exploration at the European Space Agency, said in 2021.The idea was to launch two rockets toward Mars, one carrying a lander and one carrying an orbiter.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-hibernating-so-batteries-dont-die-2021-4">lander</a> would be the largest ever sent to Mars. It would touch down near the stash of samples that Perseverance set up, deploy a rover to fetch the sample tubes, and load them onto a small rocket attached to the lander.<div type="image" title="illustration of mini rocket launching from mars lander" height="1645" width="2200" msid="109325275" hostid="261" sizebytes="207076"></div>Then the rocket would launch the samples into Mars orbit, where it would eject them toward the orbiter, which would be the largest spacecraft NASA ever sent to Mars.<div type="image" title="illustration of mars sample return mission shows mini rocket releasing small container into mars orbit" height="1080" width="1920" msid="109325277" hostid="261" sizebytes="59142"></div>The orbiter would have to grab the samples, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jane-poynter-space-perspective-founder-space-travel-crucial-protect-earth-2022-3">journey back to Earth</a>, and drop the sample vessel on a fiery plummet to our planet's surface, where a team would retrieve them.The mission plan relied about $4 billion in new technology and a decade of mission design and construction.But the projected cost has ballooned to $8 to $11 billion since Perseverance touched down at Jezero Crater. Independent reviews have also concluded that instead of one decade to bring the samples to Earth, it would take two."The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the briefing. "It's the decade of the 2040s that we're going to be landing astronauts on Mars."At the current price tag, Mars Sample Return would "cannibalize" other NASA missions, Nelson said. So the agency is calling all hands on deck, inside and outside of NASA, to come up with a new plan.<h2>NASA wants companies with 'tried-and-true' technology</h2>Fox said that NASA needs to see short proposals from companies or laboratories by May 17. Then the agency will choose a few of those competitors to further develop their ideas over a 90-day period, with complete proposals on NASA's desk by late fall or early winter.Some of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">NASA's most tried-and-true contractors</a> include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and SpaceX. Startups like Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are getting their foot in the NASA door through the agency's new moon program."What we're hoping is that we will be able to get back to some more traditional tried-and-true architectures," Fox said. "Anything requiring huge leaps in technology usually, from experience, takes a lot of time."As for the return trip from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-gravity-earth-giant-whirpools-oceans-climate-megacycle-million-years-2024-3">Mars to Earth</a>, that will be a technological leap no matter what."We've never launched from another planet, and that's actually what makes Mars Sample Return such a challenging and interesting mission because it really is the first of a kind," Fox said.

NASA is asking for help to retrieve Mars samples that could be the first evidence of alien life 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This excerpt originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Is there life on Mars Europa? NASA's trying to answer that question with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-europa-clipper-mission-jupiter-moon-alien-life-2024-10">launch of the Europa Clipper on Monday</a>. The spacecraft is headed toward Jupiter's moon Europa, which scientists believe has a massive saltwater ocean beneath its surface that's a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oxygen-europa-life-surface-ocean-subsurface-earth-juno-mission-jupiter-2024-3">prime location for extraterrestrial life</a>.But don't get your hopes up (or get scared) about us making contact with aliens. The Europa Clipper is just trying to understand if the ocean could even support life.That might not be as exciting as snapping photos of little green people, but it's still a big deal. It's the largest interplanetary spacecraft NASA has ever built, weighing 3.5 tons with wings that extend 100 feet wide.It won't arrive at Europa until April 2030, but that hasn't dimmed the space community's enthusiasm. One NASA director said these kinds of missions are "modern cathedrals" and "generational quests."<div type="image" title="spacex super heavy booster lands in mid-air" height="880" width="1175" msid="114251044" hostid="261" sizebytes="140760"></div>Space travel also happens to be a great business opportunity.Helping power Europa Clipper into space was a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Elon Musk's company has won plenty of government contracts, from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-contract-network-spy-satellites-us-intelligence-report-2024-3">creating a network of spy satellites</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-drag-international-space-station-out-of-orbit-2024-6">helping it retire spacecrafts</a>, en route to becoming an incredibly valuable company.The Europa Clipper launch follows another massive win for SpaceX. In a separate launch on Sunday, a Super Heavy booster, which stands 233 feet tall, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-spacex-starship-launch-five-huge-deal-space-travel-2024-10">safely navigated its way back to its launch site</a>.That's a massive step toward Musk's ultimate goal of significantly reducing rocket-launch costs, which could eventually make humans a multi-planetary species.Musk still has hurdles to overcome. The California Coastal Commission recently rejected a request for more-frequent SpaceX launches. Some officials cited Musk's political posts during discussion of the request.Musk said on X he planned <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-launches-california-coastal-commission-2024-10">to file a suit today against the commission</a> "for violating the First Amendment."But it's not just regulators Musk is facing off with.The business of space has the attention of several entrepreneurs, including fellow tech billionaire Jeff Bezos. The two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-is-reigniting-his-space-feud-with-jeff-bezos-2024-6">have been known to feud</a>, and have differing views on whether <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-colonies-vs-jeff-bezos-space-station-realistic-2024-7">colonizing Mars (Musk) or living in space (Bezos)</a> is a more realistic future for humanity.The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Milan Sehmbi, fellow, in London.

Space travel comes with big dreams and bigger business

A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

Harvard scientists claim that 4 categories of aliens are living hidden among us!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb searched the Pacific seafloor last year in search of meteor debris.</li><li>He said he found metal spherules that "may reflect an extraterrestrial technological origin."</li></ul>Yet another study is calling into question a Harvard professor's claims that metallic balls discovered under the ocean may have been <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-ufo-harvard-expert-avi-loeb-meteor-spaceship-science-astrophysics-2023-7">made by aliens</a>.Last year, Avi Loeb, the director of a computational astrophysics center at Harvard, said <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-ufo-harvard-expert-avi-loeb-meteor-spaceship-science-astrophysics-2023-7">metal spherules</a> found in the Pacific Ocean were left behind by a meteor that exploded near Earth in 2014.He said their bizarre chemical composition "may reflect an extraterrestrial technological origin."His claims were criticized by parts of the scientific community that believed <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-alien-hunters-debunk-alien-tech-discovery-2023-7">Loeb was making wild assertions without enough evidence to back them up.</a>Now researchers believe Loeb's costly expedition looking for evidence of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-ufo-harvard-expert-avi-loeb-meteor-spaceship-science-astrophysics-2023-7">extraterrestrial technology on the sea floor</a> might have been more than 100 miles off of its mark because it was misled by seismic data.<a target="_blank" href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.03966.pdf">Johns Hopkins University-led (JHU-led) research</a> said a blip on the seismometer that Loeb used to pinpoint the crash site may simply have been caused by the vibrations of a passing truck.If correct, that means <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/metal-ball-ocean-harvard-professor-alien-industrial-waste-loeb-spherule-2023-11">exotic metal balls recovered</a> from the sea floor may be unrelated to the outer-worldly rock, Ben Fernando, a postdoctoral researcher at JHU and lead author on the analysis, told Business Insider in an interview."It seems highly likely that the place they were searching on the sea floor was incorrect. Therefore, whatever they recovered from the sea floor and thought was from this media actually had nothing to do with it whatsoever," he said.<h2>Pinpointing the crash site</h2>In 2019, Loeb and his team searched databases for unusual meteors that were moving rapidly. That's when they came across a meteoric fireball that arrived in Earth's atmosphere in 2014.The meteor, dubbed by Loeb's team IM1, was first spotted by the <a target="_blank" href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/">Department of Defense's (DoD) sensors</a>. These said it hit the atmosphere at 27 miles per second, a high speed that suggests the meteor came from outside the solar system.This left Loeb wondering whether the 2014 object was an extraterrestrial probe. Loeb wanted to recover debris from the object to test his theory.The DoD suggested a location for the meteor's impact site, which Loeb and his team used as a baseline to track down a 46 square-mile zone where it may have crashed.Readings from a <a target="_blank" href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.07357.pdf">nearby seismometer </a>were then used to further narrow down their search area to a 6-square-mile area of interest off the coast of Papua new Guinea.This is where the expedition carried out its search for spherules, characteristic metal balls often left behind by meteors that crash in the atmosphere.Loeb's team recovered 805 spherules. A 10th of these, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.15623.pdf">their analysis</a>, contained unusual levels of three metal elements — beryllium, lanthanum, uranium — and atypical isotopes. This, they said, could point to an interstellar origin.One hypothesis is that the meteor came from a planet's crust outside the solar system. Loeb went one step further in the paper, stating that it's possible that the bizarre composition means the meteor may be made up of extraterrestrial tech.<div type="image" title="A colleaction of pictures shows different spherules collected by Loeb and colleagues during their expedition, seen by electron microscopy. There are of varied shapes and sizes." height="398" width="605" msid="108405560" hostid="261" sizebytes="13160"></div><h2>Another theory</h2>The JHU-led research, which has not been validated by peers, suggested Loeb and his colleagues misread the seismic readings taken from Papua New Guinea.They said it could be explained by nearby city noises, rather than shockwaves let off by a meteor crashing nearby."It's probably the signal of a truck driving by the seismometer," Fernando said.Fernando added that the DoD's measurements are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to pinpointing the speed and location of near-Earth objects.To firm up its theory, the JHU-led team tracked down data from acoustical measuring devices placed in the area. These car-sized microphones are typically used to detect illicit nuclear tests and are finely tuned to detect explosions in the atmosphere, Fernando said.This analysis, they said, places the location for the meteor about 120 miles from the area Loeb investigated."Fundamentally, I think the big difference is that our team has people who study sound waves, people who are seismologists, and people who study fireballs," said Fernando."And as far as I know, they don't have any of those three on their team, which it's not to say that they're not entitled to publish on this, but it may have led them to misinterpret or misunderstand the data that they were downloading," he said.Loeb disagrees with JHU analysis, stating that the seismic readings were only used to confirm data from other sources."What arrives at Earth from outside the solar system should be studied by scientists who are serious about paying attention to new data, and not ridiculed by ill-motivated debunkers," he said <a target="_blank" href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-thrill-is-all-about-the-search-cb6410a8e4ba">in a Medium post</a> on Sunday.The findings will be <a target="_blank" href="https://phys.org/news/2024-03-interstellar-linked-aliens-truck.html">presented</a> at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston on Tuesday.<h2>No stranger to controversy</h2>This isn't Loeb's first foray with controversy. The professor first made headlines when he said it was reasonable to assume <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-object-close-to-earth-in-2017-says-harvard-professor-2021-1">'Oumuamua</a>, an interstellar meteor that cruised past the Earth in 2017, might be a wayward piece of alien technology.The professor's hypotheses have been ruffling feathers among the scientific community, many of whom believe scientists should only put forward theories if they have a solid basis of evidence.While Loeb has been attracting critiques from peers, he has gained in popularity among tech tycoons and billionaires, who are backing the Galileo Project, Loeb's new alien tech-tracking research institute. The expedition to recover the spherule was fully funded by crypto entrepreneur <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ethereum-eth-cofounders-vitalik-buterin-cardano-charles-hoskinson-gavin-wood-2021-9">Charles Hoskinson</a>.Nevertheless, the JHU analysis adds to a body of criticism raised against the science behind Loeb's expedition.Some have questioned whether the <a target="_blank" href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.07699.pdf">meteor was interstellar</a> — US Space Force has weighed in to confirm that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/interstellar-meteor-avi-loeb-expedition">they believe it wa</a>s, but not everybody agrees with that analysis.Others have also suggested that contamination of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/metal-ball-ocean-harvard-professor-alien-industrial-waste-loeb-spherule-2023-11">coal ash</a> runoff from nearby industrial processes could be behind the spherules' peculiar composition.Loeb disagrees vehemently with these rebuttals and has <a target="_blank" href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-belau-spherules-from-im1s-site-are-not-coal-ash-7b818dd5f452">put forward</a> arguments against each.Regarding the truck hypothesis, Loeb said he disagreed with the analysis."We found that data from other seismometers farther away, does not provide meaningful constraints, whereas the new preprint uses the large uncertainties from these other seismometers to claim that the fireball could have been anywhere across a large region if we were to ignore the DoD localization data," he said."There is nothing one could say to people who choose to dismiss reliable DoD information," he said.Undeterred, Loeb and his team are planning another expedition to detect fragments from interstellar meteors.

A signal linked to aliens by a Harvard professor may have been caused by a passing truck

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Two humanoid dolls seized from a shipment to Mexico have been studied by Peruvian forensic experts.</li><li>Rumors circled that the dolls had been created by aliens, but experts found that wasn't the case.</li></ul>At least we know they're not aliens, forensic experts in Peru said Friday about two humanoid doll-like figures and an apparent three-fingered hand that was seized by customs authorities in the South American country last year from a shipment heading to Mexico.After studying the objects, forensic experts with Peru's prosecutor's office said human hands made the objects with paper, glue, metal, and bones from humans and animals.The findings quash some people's belief that the figures come from an "alien center or come from another planet, all of which is totally false," said forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada, who led the analysis."The conclusion is simple: they are dolls assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues, therefore they were not assembled during pre-Hispanic times," Estrada told reporters. "They are not extraterrestrials; they are not aliens."The prosecutor's office has not yet determined who owns the objects. Officials on Friday would only say that a Mexican citizen was the intended recipient of the objects before customs agents seized them in October.<div type="image" title="Two humanoid dolls made of paper, glue, and human and animal bones, are displayed on a table with a red tablecloth." height="3744" width="5616" msid="106807188" hostid="261" sizebytes="521308"></div>The country of Peru has long inspired speculation about alien visits to Earth, with its famous <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-researchers-discover-more-mysterious-biomorphs-in-peru-nazca-lines-2022-12">Nazca lines</a> and iconic temples of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/places-people-think-aliens-built-2018-7#machu-picchu-2">Macchu Picchu</a> drawing the attention of skeptics who argue extraterrestrials are the only explanation for such tremendous feats of engineering and ancient architectural development.But the lack of scientific evidence to support those theories doesn't stop them from trying to pass off mysterious discoveries as proof of otherworldly visitors.Mexican journalist José Jaime Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers became the subject of international ridicule in September when he went before the country's congress to present two boxes with supposed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-mexico-congress-species-jose-maussan-peru-extraterrestrials-fake-mummies-2023-11">mummies found in Peru</a>.He and others claimed they were "non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution."In November, Maussan returned to Mexico's congress with a group of Peruvian doctors and spent more than three hours pressing the case for "non-human beings" that he said were found in Peru, where he made similar claims in 2017. A report by the Peruvian prosecutor's office that year found that alleged alien bodies were "recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.""They are not the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present," the 2017 report stated.Experts on Friday showed reporters a couple of 2-foot-long dolls dressed in red, orange and green clothes. They said examinations showed the bones of birds, dogs, and other animals were used to create the dolls.Meanwhile, an alleged three-finger hand was subjected to X-ray examinations. Estrada said the "very poorly" built hand was created with human bones.

Peruvian researchers rule out aliens as the creators of 2 mysterious dolls

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mars just scored another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-discovers-potential-alien-life-evidence-biosignature-perseverance-rover-mars-2024-7">point in favor of alien life</a>.</li><li>Scientists discovered signs of an ocean's worth of liquid water miles below Mars' surface.</li></ul>Mars is looking more and more like a place for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA to find the first signs of alien life</a>.Scientists discovered evidence of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/groundwater-pumping-causes-earth-rotational-pole-to-shift-study-finds-2023-7">reservoir of liquid water</a> seven to 13 miles below the Martian surface, lingering in the pores of the planet's crust.They believe there's enough to cover the entire planet with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-death-star-moon-mimas-may-have-a-secret-ocean-2022-1">an ocean</a> about one mile deep.The water, if it exists, is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7">too deep to access</a> in the foreseeable future. Still, it's another promising sign that Mars could one day yield the most disruptive discovery in human history — that of life beyond Earth.The discovery, announced Monday, comes just weeks after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">NASA's Perseverance rover</a> drilled a rock sample on Mars that could contain evidence of microbial life from a bygone era.<div type="image" title="gritty yellow ring with speckled solid rock sample inside" height="1400" width="1471" msid="112479167" hostid="261" sizebytes="125234"></div>Ancient remnants of long-extinct <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">alien life</a> are all NASA can hope for on the parched Martian surface. But any sizeable source of liquid water, like these potential underground reservoirs, is a place to check for active microbial life — even though water 10 miles underground would never see the light of day."It's certainly true on Earth — deep, deep mines host life, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seamount-new-species-schmidt-ocean-institute-expedition-marine-chile-2024-2">the bottom of the ocean hosts life</a>. We haven't found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life," Michael Manga, a co-author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/12/scientists-find-oceans-of-water-on-mars-its-just-too-deep-to-tap/">said</a> in a press release.<h2 id="aaa09a5d-96fd-42cc-8177-e2c4153862f8">Marsquakes helped NASA find water clues</h2>When <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-detects-big-mars-quakes-2021-9">NASA put a seismometer on Mars</a>, aboard its InSight lander, the goal was to peer into the planet's interior.<div type="image" title="mars brown planet with blue-black and white splotches in the black of space" height="1920" width="1920" msid="112479165" hostid="261" sizebytes="112220"></div>Though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-mission-ending-dust-power-crisis-2022-12">the InSight mission ended</a> in 2022, scientists are still sifting through all the data it collected in hopes of learning something new about Mars's depths.InSight's seismometer instrument <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-missing-big-mars-quakes-2021-4">measured Marsquake activity</a>, mapping seismic waves. As those waves move through the Martian interior, their timing and the direction they travel are influenced by the material they're traveling through deep underground.So, by measuring the waves, the scientists of the new study can tell what's underneath the planet's surface. It's similar to how the waves of an X-ray or CAT scan can reveal what's inside a human body.Manga and his colleagues used mathematical modeling to determine that a deep layer of fractured igneous rock, saturated with water, best explains InSight's data. Their findings were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409983121">published</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.<div type="image" title="illustration of a column cutout of mars planetary interior beneath the insight lander with a deep layer of cracked rock with water in the cracks" height="825" width="1000" msid="112479161" hostid="261" sizebytes="95798"></div><h2 id="a0164bcd-c556-4a64-a741-6c029fdf4ce2">A clue in a Mars mystery</h2>In addition to being downright fascinating and potentially overturning humanity's conception of Mars as a lifeless, dry red rock, the new findings may help solve one of the planet's greatest mysteries: where all the water went.Mars's surface was once lush with water. Heck, the Perseverance rover is exploring a basin that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">used to be a giant lake and river delta</a>.But the planet didn't have a strong magnetic field, like Earth's, to help it hold onto its atmosphere. As a result, the sun's radiation wore away what little protective layer of atmospheric gases existed, and the planet dried up.By about 3 billion years ago, all the water was gone. Some of it is still frozen in Mars's ice caps. Perhaps some simply vaporized in the harsh space environment. But scientists haven't really figured out where it all went.The new findings suggest some of the water seeped deep into the planet's crust.

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