This Week's Sci-lights

Sci-Curious is excited to announce that you are currently reading our first ever edition of This Week’s Sci-lights, a comprehensive bank of all that’s new and uniquely titillating in the realm of science.

This week, the news is endowed with a universal appeal, as the Mars Curiosity Rover, MESSENGER Spacecraft and Hobby-Eberly Telescope are all set to make earth-shattering announcements!

Mars Curiosity Rover
Photo Credit: firstpost.com

For those who don’t know, the Mars Curiosity Rover is a joint project between NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with the goal of creating the most technologically advanced rolling chemistry set in the history of mankind. Its goal is simple: sample the Martian soil for evidence of water, organic compounds, and other essential elements. The news as of yet is completely under wraps, but with the fanfare that is being generated, it is liable to be a major insight, at least to the science community. Rest assured we will keep you updated with any information that comes our way, but if you are interested in minute by minute coverage, an article on the subject can be found here.

CGI of MESSENGER orbiter
Photo Credit: honoluluagonizer.com

A lesser-known NASA expedition, aptly named MESSENGER, involves an unmanned orbiter around the planet Mercury. Again, NASA is keeping tight-lipped on the matter, but when they are this clandestine about a discovery, it is usually of enough magnitude to make the headlines. All we know so far is that the MESSENGER spacecraft had the mission of studying the geochemistry on the grey planet, so evidence of any kind of biological announcement is unlikely, but the alternative is equally exciting.

EDIT: It appears that during the writing of this article, NASA verified that MESSENGER has found evidence of water on Mercury! This is a groundbreaking development that could lead to more frequent expeditions to the planet. Further details to follow.

Last but not least, the University of Texas researchers behind the Hobby-Eberly Telescope appear to have discovered the universe’s largest known black hole in a galaxy simply named NGC1227. It is estimated to be 17 billion times larger in mass than our sun, and may help scientists understand how gravity behaves with the elements in such an extreme environment. One of the discoverers, Remco van den Bosch, explains the ramifications of this announcement in detail in this video.

Antarctic lake
Photo Credit: aires-apocolypse.com

Oh, and by special request, there is one 

last piece of news to mention, which is much closer to home, if you’ll please forgive this thematic departure.  In the never-ending search for life, scientists have found microorganisms subsisting beneath the frozen glaciers of Antarctica, which emphasizes the harsh climates that microbes can withstand. This was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which stated that the microorganisms survived on the byproducts of a chemical reaction between salty water and iron molecules in the deep, lightless environment beneath a frozen Antarctic lake. Those interested can learn more here.