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  In a new blind survey of gravitational microlensing, an international team of astronomers has detected likely evidence for four Earth-sized planets wandering freely through interstellar space. Using observations from the aging   Kepler Space Telescope , researchers led by   Iain McDonald   at the University of Manchester picked out key signs of microlensing by the planets in a crowded and noisy field of stars. Their success in the face of challenging circumstances clearly demonstrates the feasibility of blind, space-based microlensing surveys in future missions. In some star systems, astronomers predict that the strong gravitational tug of large planets could have thrown their smaller planetary neighbours out into interstellar space. Without any host star, these roughly Earth-sized “free-floating planets” (FFPs) would be virtually impossible to detect using conventional exoplanet searching techniques – but should be detectable through the effect of gravitational mi...
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NASA’s Perseverance Plans Next Sample Attempt

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The rover will abrade a rock this week, allowing scientists and engineers to decide whether that target would withstand its powerful drill. In its search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is once again preparing to collect the first of many rock core samples that could eventually be brought to Earth for further study. This week, a tool on the rover’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm will abrade the surface of a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” allowing scientists to look inside and determine whether they want to capture a sample with the rover’s coring bit. Slightly thicker than a pencil, the sample would be sealed in one of the 42 remaining titanium tubes aboard the rover. Should the team decide to acquire a core from this rock, the sampling process would be initiated next week. The mission attempted to capture their first record of the crater floor on Aug. 6 from a rock that ultimately  proved too crumbly , breaking into powder and fragments o...
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