A final flyover of the asteroid Bennu and five other outstanding scientific and scientific stories this week

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Welcome to Wonder Theory, your weekly, scientific summary.

In a matter of days, robots reached milestones in our solar system while Earth researchers discovered the windows of humanity’s early days. These contrasting advances surprise us here on the CNN Space and Science team, especially because they happen so often.

Learning how our ancestors created rock art and engraved prehistoric stone maps transforms these early humans from figures unrelated to relatives with common ground.

Similarly, the robotic researchers we send to planets and asteroids, these rock capsules from the time of the last 4.5 billion years, discover the past of the solar system. These ideas, which fuel our curiosity, share not only our origin, but what had happened long before humans walked the Earth.

Here are some of this week’s amazing explorations and discoveries.

Through the universe

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been in an orbital dance with the asteroid near Earth Bennu since it arrived in December 2018, but this encounter and greeting is about to end. The spacecraft completed a final overflight of the asteroid on Wednesday, which reached up to 3.1 miles above the Bennu surface.
The concept of this artist shows the flight path of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its last flyby of the asteroid Bennu.

The spacecraft is now moving away from its two-and-a-half-year-old companion and will depart for Earth on May 10th.

Bennu and OSIRIS-REx had a close encounter on October 20, 2020, when the spacecraft briefly touched the asteroid’s surface and retreated. This allowed the spacecraft’s sampling arm to collect 2 ounces of Bennu material that will be returned to Earth in September 2023. The sample could shed more light on the formation of the solar system and how elements such as water they could have been delivered to Earth early by asteroid impacts.

The images captured by OSIRIS-REx in its latest run will reveal the aftermath of the sampling event in October, which was a messy affair. Expect to see these images and the amount of Bennu surface altered by the appointment, next week.

A long time ago…

It is possible that ancient cave painters purposely sacrificed their ability to breathe in order to create works of art that make history.

New research analyzing cave paintings from 14,000 to 40,000 years ago in Spain and France has shown that many of these works of art can be found in narrow, deep passages of cave systems.

Upper Paleolithic artists would have needed artificial light to see how they worked. According to the study, the fire would have decreased the available oxygen, causing hypoxia, releasing dopamine and causing hallucinations.

Researchers believe it was a conscious decision that helped artists connect with the world around them and their beliefs, including the cosmos and the underworld.

The wonder

One more week, another selfie rover on Mars, but this one is even more historic. The Perseverance rover took a selfie with the new Ingenuity independent helicopter, which is sitting in the middle of a Martian airfield and preparing for the first motorized controlled flight from another planet.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 meters from the rover.
Until April 3, the helicopter had been attached to the rover’s belly since before it left Earth. Since it fell gently to the surface, the helicopter has been marking milestones on its list, including the survivals of icy nights on Mars and their paddles.
The helicopter is scheduled to make its first flight on Sunday and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission control team will share details of this momentous trial at 11 a.m. (ET). If you’re an early riser and want to see the first black-and-white images sent by the helicopter, tune in to NASA’s mission check at the JPL Monday morning from 4:15 AM ET.
And then we will know how the first moment of the Wright brothers spent on another planet. Here we hope Ingenuity lives up to its name and has a successful first outing.

Curiosities

According to new research, a stone map of the Bronze Age may be the oldest representation of a territory in Europe.

The Saint-Bélec slab, a partially broken and engraved piece of stone, was first discovered in 1900 before it was forgotten for about a century in a museum.

A recent analysis revealed that the carvings actually represent 3D representations of a valley and rivers similar to the landscape of western Brittany in France that “highlights the cartographic knowledge of prehistoric societies,” said researcher Clément Nicolas postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bournemouth and first author of the study.

The slab was originally recovered from a burial mound in the same region it represents and was probably reused in ancient burials to help seal human remains. Although the map has not traveled the world, it has served many intriguing purposes.

The weather changed

The arrival of white and pink cherry blossoms, or “sakura,” is often a famous sign that spring has arrived in Japan, but scientists ’early flowering years are worried.

Cherry blossoms are usually associated with April. The flowering trees bloomed early and reached their peak on March 22 in Tokyo, making it the second oldest flowering date. They bloomed on March 26 in Kyoto, the first flowering of the central city in more than 1,200 years.

A bird is seen next to the cherry blossoms in a Tokyo park on March 23rd. The cherries began their annual flowering almost two weeks earlier than expected.

Warm temperatures around the world cause an early end of frosts and the sudden arrival of spring, which causes flowers to open earlier, the researchers said. Cherry blossoms in Washington, DC, followed a similar pattern.

This could cause an undulating effect on all ecosystems where plants and insects rely on each other for environmental and environmental clues and have done so for thousands of years, including valuable crops.

This first flowering is just the tip of the iceberg of a global phenomenon that could destabilize countries ’natural systems and economies, said Amos Tai, an associate professor of Earth System Science at China University in Hong Kong.

Force of nature

Get ready for another season of wild hurricanes.

Colorado State University on Thursday shared its forecast for a hyperactive season, which includes 17 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes (category 3 or higher). A typical hurricane system usually has 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.

Although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts are not due until May, scientists agree that the Atlantic will host a busy hurricane season due to warm ocean surface temperatures. and the lack of calming effects of El Niño, which increases the vertical shear of the wind that prevents hurricanes from forming.

If you live in an area that could be affected by hurricanes, start preparing now to have an evacuation plan and an updated evacuation kit before the season begins on June 1st.
Do you like what you read? Ah, but there is more. Come back here next Saturday for the next edition of Theory of Wonders, presented by CNN writer Space and Science Ashley Strickland, which finds wonder on planets beyond our solar system and discoveries of the ancient world.

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