Peregrine Moon Mission Runs Into Disaster, and More Top Science News of the Week

Failure in space dominated our headlines this week, with Astrobotic’s uncrewed lunar lander mission Peregrine 1 experiencing critical issues shortly after leaving Earth. Back on the ground, though, NASA finally—after months of trying—succeeded in opening the container filled with samples plucked from the asteroid Bennu.

Click through for this week’s roundup. 2 / 12 “Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant,” Astrobotic on X. “The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture.” Astrobotic is now brainstorming “alternative mission profiles” for Peregrine in an attempt to salvage the project.

3 / 12 A UK woman’s missing cat appears to have done the most cat thing imaginable—spending years on his own just 900 feet away from home. The missing Bengal cat, named Duke, was discovered leading a new life in a nearby factory seven years after he went missing. 4 / 12 After months of fidgeting with a canister that contained rocky samples from an ancient asteroid, NASA engineers have finally removed two stubborn fasteners that were preventing the space agency from collecting the full amount of Bennu’s debris.

5 / 12 NASA’s freshly painted X 59 aircraft rolled out of its hangar on Friday, January 12, in the lead up to its first takeoff. The experimental plane, built by Lockheed Martin, is designed to develop a quieter type of supersonic flight. 6 / 12 Sometimes, a moment is so fleeting or a scene is so small that not even the fiercest squint can capture it.

Thankfully, that’s where cameras—and the photographers that wield them—come in. Today, the winners and finalists of the fifth Close up Photographer of the Year competition are revealed. Showcasing nature at its smaller scales, the awarded images—selected from nearly 12,000 entries—offer an intimate look at the animal kingdom, fungi, and the remarkable planet that we call home.

7 / 12 A mission to land a private U.S. lander on the Moon, and the first U.S. lander since the Apollo era, looks to be ending before it even had a chance to get started. 8 / 12 A silky shark with a chunk taken out of its dorsal fin regrew much of its lost appendage, according to photographs taken of the fish nearly a year apart.

Research describing the elasmobranch’s recovery is in the Journal of Marine Sciences. 9 / 12 Researchers believe they’ve found the oldest known fossilized skin, hidden away in a limestone cave system in Oklahoma. 10 / 12 The Peregrine lander has less than a day to live, and the company behind the spacecraft may have figured out why its mission was doomed shortly after its launch.

e 11 / 12 Astrobotic, the team behind the Peregrine spacecraft, is urgently working to extract any possible value from its failing mission. This comes after a catastrophic propellant leak occurred just after yesterday’s launch, ending the spacecraft’s attempt to land on the Moon. 12 / 12.