English news for Wednesday, October 7, 2026

NASA has shown a new picture of early morning on Mars. The picture was taken by Curiosity, a NASA rover^*1 that drives on Mars. NASA showed it to the public on October 6.

Curiosity took the picture on August 11 with its camera, Mastcam. It was 8:30 in the morning on Mars. It was also the 4,982nd day of the mission^*2 on Mars. The picture is a panorama^*3. NASA made it from six smaller pictures. NASA did not change the colors, so the picture shows how the early morning on Mars really looks.

The picture shows a group of yardangs^*4. They lie on the northwest side of Mount Sharp, a mountain on Mars, and they stretch for about 16 kilometers (10 miles).

Mount Sharp is about 5 kilometers high. Curiosity has been climbing it since 2014. It has now climbed about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles). No rover has ever climbed so high on Mars.

Curiosity will keep climbing. NASA hopes the rover will reach the bottom of the yardangs in 2027.

1. *1 rover: a small car with no driver that moves around on another planet
2. *2 mission: a big job in space, like sending a rover to a planet and studying it
3. *3 panorama: a very wide picture that shows everything from one side to the other
4. *4 yardangs: long hills of rock made when the wind cuts away the ground for a very long time

A Japanese scientist will receive the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry^*1. His name is Kenso Soai. He is a professor emeritus^*2 at Tokyo University of Science, a university in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The university announced the news on October 7. The prize winner was chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the group in Sweden that picks the Nobel Prize winners in science.

Soai was born in 1950 in Hiroshima Prefecture, in the west of Japan. He studied science at the University of Tokyo and later received a doctor's degree^*3 in science. After that, he worked as a research fellow^*4 of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He also did research at the University of North Carolina in the United States. Then he became a professor at Tokyo University of Science. In 2012, he received the Medal with Purple Ribbon, an award from the Japanese government.

The university says that reporters can ask for a press conference^*5 or an interview^*6 with Soai.

1. *1 chemistry: the science of what things are made of and how they change
2. *2 professor emeritus: a professor who has stopped working but keeps the title as an honor
3. *3 doctor's degree: the highest title a university gives to a student
4. *4 research fellow: a person who is paid to study a subject and find new things
5. *5 press conference: a meeting where someone answers questions from many reporters
6. *6 interview: a meeting where a reporter asks one person questions
7. research: careful study to find new things