Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Pungent ​gas above Martian fissures hints ​at ongoing volcanism

An orbiting atmospheric research ‌spacecraft ​has detected the pungent gas hydrogen chloride above surface fissures along a massive ancient volcano on Mars in a ‌finding that suggests Earth's planetary neighbor is still volcanically active. In a discovery that has implications for whether Mars might presently have subsurface conditions conducive to microbial life, researchers said the ExoMars Trace ‌Gas Orbiter has documented the gas, a common constituent of volcanic emissions on Earth, ‌in the low atmosphere in the region of Alba Mons.

NASA's 22-year-old Swift satellite telescope falls from orbit in fiery finale

NASA's Swift satellite telescope, which spent two decades studying the most powerful known blasts ⁠of ​energy in the ⁠cosmos, tumbled out of orbit as expected on Wednesday and burned up in Earth's atmosphere over Indonesia, the ⁠space agency reported. The fiery demise of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, weighing roughly 3,200 pounds (1,452 ​kg), came less than three months after a rescue spacecraft failed its mission to ⁠boost the satellite to higher orbit and extend its life.

NASA's Swift satellite telescope heads for fiery ⁠re-entry ​22 years after launch

An aging NASA satellite telescope that a robotic spacecraft was sent to retrieve on a failed rescue mission this summer was headed for a fiery ⁠re-entry into Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, nearly 22 years after it was launched into ⁠orbit. The Neil Gehrels ⁠Swift Observatory, weighing roughly 3,200 pounds (1,452 kg), was set to tumble out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere somewhere over ‌the tropics, ‌with fragments surviving re-entry unlikely to threaten populated ​areas, according to NASA.