Science News Roundup: NASA rover faces 'seven minutes of terror' before landing on Mars; Tiny Hungarian water-tracker aims to rove the Moon and more

UK variant not causing worse illness in children NASA rover Perseverance on track for daredevil landing on Mars NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced robotic astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, neared the end of its seven-month, 293-million-mile (470-million-km) journey on Wednesday, hours away from a daredevil landing attempt on the Red Planet.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

UK variant not causing worse illness in children; COVID-19 breath test shows promise

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus

. UK variant not causing worse illness in children NASA rover Perseverance on track for daredevil landing on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced robotic astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, neared the end of its seven-month, 293-million-mile (470-million-km) journey on Wednesday, hours away from a daredevil landing attempt on the Red Planet. With 370,000 miles (596,000 km) left to travel, Perseverance was hurtling through space on track for a bull's-eye touchdown on Thursday inside a vast basin called Jezero Crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed and river delta, mission managers said on Tuesday.

Planet Earth its quietest in decades as lockdowns reduce seismic noise

Earth had its quietest period in decades during 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced human activity and its impact on the planet's crust, according to scientists working on a global study. An international group of seismologists from 33 countries measured a drop of up to 50% in so-called ambient noise generated by humans travelling and factories humming after lockdowns came into force around the world.

NASA rover faces 'seven minutes of terror' before landing on Mars

When NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, a robotic astrobiology lab packed inside a space capsule, hits the final stretch of its seven-month journey from Earth this week, it is set to emit a radio alert as it streaks into the thin Martian atmosphere. By the time that signal reaches mission managers some 127 million miles (204 million km) away at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, Perseverance will already have landed on the Red Planet - hopefully in one piece.

NASA rover Perseverance pierces Mars' atmosphere on way to attempted landing

NASA's robotic science rover Perseverance streaked into the thin atmosphere of Mars on Thursday to begin a daredevil seven-minute descent and attempted landing on an ancient lake bed where scientists plan to search for traces of fossilized microbial life. Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever flown to another world, was headed for a self-guided touchdown inside a vast and rocky basin called Jezero Crater at the edge of a former river delta etched into the Red Planet billions of years ago.

Another small step: Tiny Hungarian water-tracker aims to rove the Moon

A miniature rover being developed to explore the Moon's surface is on track to join the search for water there, its Hungarian inventors believe - using a device that weighs less than a bag of sugar. Named after a Hungarian breed of dog, the Puli rover is a low-cost platform designed to carry different payloads, including the ice water snooper, which won the 2020 "Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload" challenge, a competition organised by the U.S. space agency.

Bosnian villagers cheer as NASA attempts to land on namesake lake on Mars

Schoolchildren in the Bosnian village of Jezero waited with great excitement for an attempt by NASA on Thursday to land on an ancient lake bed on Mars which is named after their tiny hometown. NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, is due to make a landing attempt on the ancient lake bed after a seven-month journey from Earth. Scientists hope to find signs of fossilized microbial life.

Teeth from Siberian mammoths yield oldest DNA ever recovered

Scientists have recovered the oldest DNA on record, extracting it from the molars of mammoths that roamed northeastern Siberia up to 1.2 million years ago in research that broadens the horizons for understanding extinct species. The researchers said on Wednesday they had recovered and sequenced DNA from the remains of three individual mammoths - elephant cousins that were among the large mammals that dominated Ice Age landscapes - entombed in permafrost conditions conducive to preservation of ancient genetic material.