Jul 7, 2026 2:54 PM
This week in stories at The Debrief, we look at unusual features discovered on Mars, a pair of celestial rendezvous, and a deep Earth mystery.
(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)This week in stories we're covering at The Debrief... Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft just completed its flyby of the mysterious asteroid Torifune over the weekend, in a celestial rendezvous that nearly coincided with the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission's successful capturing of new images of Earth's "quasi-moon". Equally intriguing are the unusual "polygon" structures NASA's Curiosity rover just spotted and photographed on the Martian surface; what are they, and what caused them? And finally, bringing things back down to Earth a bit, scientists have revealed new details about an odd "reversal" that occurred deep within the Earth's molten core, and what new findings suggest that could mean.
In addition to these stories, here's a look at more of the stories we're following right now at The Debrief...
- Archaeologists Opened a Chinese Lord’s 2,600-Year-Old Tomb—and Discovered Dozens of “Deactivated” Metallic Artifacts Why were dozens of bronze artifacts discovered within an ancient Chinese tomb "deactivated" at the time of their placement?
- How Jellyfish Can ‘Miraculously’ Heal Without Scars Has Long Remained a Mystery—Scientists Now Know Their Secret Jellyfish can close a wound in real time, without stitches, scabs, or scars. Now scientists have unlocked the secrets of how they do it.
- The Brain’s Language System Is Far More Expansive Than Scientists Thought, New Study Finds New evidence suggests the brain’s language network is far more widespread than previously thought.
- Surprising Evidence of a ‘Lost’ Ancient City is Emerging from Beneath the Sands of Egypt’s Western Desert Archaeologists have found the remains of an ancient 'lost' city in Egypt’s western desert, Ministry of Antiquity officials have revealed.
- How Did a Crab Become Trapped in a Bottle with an Opening Too Small to Enter? Once-Baffled Scientists Say They’ve Solved the Mystery An oceanic mystery has unfolded with the discovery of a crab in a plastic bottle with an opening too small for the crustacean to fit through.
- A.I. Just Mapped a ‘Hidden’ Structure Inside One of the Most Complex Problems in Physics A single machine learning model just turned one of condensed matter physics' most persistent problems into a navigable map.
- Hidden for More Than 1,000 Years, a Lost Maya City Has Been Uncovered Deep in the Mexican Jungle An international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of a previously unknown Maya city hidden beneath a millennium of jungle growth.
- Look: NASA Celebrates “America 250” This Independence Day With a Patriotic View of the Cosmos With the arrival of America’s 250th birthday this Independence Day weekend, NASA is marking the occasion with a patriotic-themed perspective on the cosmos.
- These Microbes Could Allow Plants to Grow in Impossibly Salty Soil Salty soil, one of the greatest threats to agriculture, may have a new cure in the form of soil bacteria that allows plants to thrive.
- A ‘Second Breakfast’ for Real-Life Hobbits? New Evidence Calls into Question Past Presumptions About Homo Floresiensis Homo floresiensis, a tiny ancient hominin, often compared to the hobbits of the Lord of the Rings, engaged in a sort of second breakfast.
- “We’ve Replicated in Chemistry What Only Used to be Possible in Biology”: Scientists Have Created the First Fully Synthetic Cell Researchers have developed the first entirely artificial cell, made completely from non-living chemical components.
- Hawking Radiation Breakthrough: These Black Hole Emissions Could Reveal Quantum Gravity New experiments are bringing into focus the mechanism behind Hawking radiation, demonstrating black holes are not strictly a one-way street.
- The Unconscious Brain May Be More Capable Than Scientists Realized While a patient is fully anesthetized and unresponsive, neurons in the hippocampus continue to process language, distinguish different types of words, and generate neural activity consistent with predicting upcoming words.
- America at 250: From the Battle for Independence, to the Fight Over Artificial Intelligence As America celebrates its 250th birthday, we look at technological revolutions that have shaped the country—and the AI revolution now poised to redefine its future.
- This Intriguing Exoplanet is Just 25 Light-Years from Earth—Is Its Too Dangerous to Be Home to Life? Researchers have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet just 25 light-years from Earth—but is its precarious location on the cosmic shore too dangerous for extraterrestrial life?
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