QUICK TAKES

DUAL DINO-KILLER

Researchers have found a 5.3-milewide (8.5 km), 66-million-year-old crater off the coast of West Africa. Because Nadir Crater dates back to about the same time as the dinosaurending Chicxulub impact, the two may have been caused by fragments of a shared parent asteroid.

KEEPS GOING AND GOING … NASA’s Curiosity rover celebrated its 10th Earth year on the Red Planet Aug. 6. Despite a decade of Mars exploration, the car-sized precursor to Perseverance remains a scientific powerhouse.

SHOOT FOR THE STARS

In July, China began construction on the country’s first commercial spaceport. Located within Wenchang International Aerospace City on the southern island of Hainan, the new spaceport is planned to start regular commercial launches by early 2024.

TRACING A MARTIAN RELIC Using an advanced algorithm, researchers located the likely site where a martian meteorite containing 4.5-billion-year-old igneous rock was ejected from the Red Planet some 1.5 billion years ago: the 25-mile-wide (40 km) Khujirt Crater in Mars’ southern hemisphere.

ASTEROID DUST BUNNIES Dust grains on asteroids may hop around the surface or even jump off entirely due to forces akin to static electricity, computer simulations suggest. This could help explain why, in 2020, OSIRIS-REx found asteroid Bennu’s surface was rough and boulder-strewn, not smooth and dusty as predicted.

WHERE NO WOMAN

HAS GONE BEFORE

Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek, died July 30 at the age of 89. She also served as a NASA ambassador in the late 1970s, helping recruit the agency’s first women and people of color as astronauts in the Space Shuttle Program. — JAKE PARKS