Mysteries of the Past and Future: From Woolly Mammoths to SpaceX's ISS Mission

The latest science news highlights several fascinating topics. Researchers delve into the mystery of the last woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island, pinpoint the date of the Kyrenia shipwreck, explore SpaceX's upcoming mission to deorbit the ISS, examine Boeing Starliner's testing woes, and discover Neanderthal compassion through a fossil. Furthermore, NASA continues to evaluate the Starliner, while Russian scientists study a frozen 44,000-year-old wolf.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Genome study deepens mystery of what doomed Earth's last mammoths

About 4,000 years ago, the last of Earth's woolly mammoths died out on a lonely Arctic Ocean island off the coast of Siberia, a melancholy end to one of the world's charismatic Ice Age animals. But what doomed this last mammoth population on Wrangel Island? A new genomic analysis deepens the mystery. The study offers the fullest account to date of the inbreeding, deleterious mutations and low genetic diversity experienced by this population during 6,000 years of isolation on the island but concluded that, despite previous suggestions, these factors are unlikely to have doomed the Wrangel mammoths.

Study firms up date of famous ancient shipwreck off Cyprus

When scientists in the 1960s excavated the wreck of an ancient Greek merchant ship off the northern coast of Cyprus, what they found was an amazing time capsule from a pivotal period in the Mediterranean world following the death of Alexander the Great. But determining the date of the Kyrenia shipwreck with any sort of precision has proven difficult, and some previous scientific dating yielded conclusions that conflicted with the archeological evidence. Researchers have now calculated this timeline with new precision using improved techniques that they said can be applied to date other ancient shipwrecks as well.

Musk's SpaceX gets $843 million to help discard International Space Station around 2030

NASA awarded SpaceX $843 million to build a vehicle capable of pushing the International Space Station into Earth's atmosphere for its planned destruction around 2030, it said on Wednesday, a task originally meant for Russia's thrusters. Under its new NASA contract, SpaceX will build what the space agency called the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle to deorbit the space station and avoid risks to populated areas, with NASA taking ownership of the craft and handling the deorbiting operation.

Boeing Starliner's return from space to hinge on weeks of more testing

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will not return its two astronauts from the International Space Station until after engineers spend "a couple weeks" testing to investigate the spacecraft's thruster issues, a NASA official said on Friday. Starliner, which has been docked to the ISS since June 6 after ferrying its first crew of astronauts there, has had its test mission drawn out after a series of issues involving its thrusters and leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.

Fossil of child with Down syndrome hints at Neanderthal compassion

Living among a small band of Neanderthals in what is now eastern Spain was a child, perhaps 6 years old, with Down syndrome, as shown in a remarkable fossil preserving traits in the inner ear anatomy indicative of this serious genetic condition. This fossil, unearthed at the Cova Negra archeological site in the province of Valencia near the city of Xàtiva, not only represents the earliest-known evidence of Down syndrome but, according to scientists, hints at compassionate caregiving in these extinct archaic humans - close cousins to our own species.

Russian satellite breaks up in space, forces ISS astronauts to shelter

A defunct Russian satellite has broken up into more than 100 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for about an hour and adding to the mass of space junk already in orbit, U.S. space agencies said. There were no immediate details on what caused the break-up of the RESURS-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which Russia declared dead in 2022.

Russian scientists conduct autopsy on 44,000-year-old permafrost wolf carcass

In Russia's far northeastern Yakutia region, local scientists are performing an autopsy on a wolf frozen in permafrost for around 44,000 years, a find they said was the first of its kind. Found by chance by locals in Yakutia's Abyyskiy district in 2021, the wolf's body is only now being properly examined by scientists.

NASA, Boeing continue evaluating Starliner's propulsion system performance

NASA said on Thursday that it would continue to evaluate Starliner's propulsion system performance along with Boeing before the shuttle returns from the International Space Station (ISS). NASA and Boeing did not provide a new date on the return, which had been set for June 26 after a pushback from the first potential date of June 14.

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