The European Space Agency has decided that "ExoMars" is a bit bland, and are opening up suggestions to the public.

 

The European Space Agency is looking for a name for its new Mars rover which will land on the red planet in 2021.

Launching in 2020, the rover is currently named ExoMars, but the team behind the mission are looking for a more suitable name to engage the public.

Firing a starter pistol on the race to find an alternative, British astronaut Tim Peake told the Farnborough Airshow: "Mars is a fascinating destination.

"A place where humans will one day work alongside robots to gather new knowledge and search for life in our solar system.
"The ExoMars rover is a vital part of this journey of exploration and we're asking you to become part of this exciting mission and name the rover that will scout the Martian surface."

The UK is the second largest European contributor to the ExoMars mission, behind Italy, having invested £256m (€287m) in the mission and £14m (€15m) on the instruments.

 The competition has seemingly been designed to avoid a repeat of the Boaty McBoatface incident which embarrassed the creators of the polar research ship which was eventually called the RRS Sir David Attenborough despite the public favourite a different moniker.

Instead of a public poll allowing people to swarm behind Marsy McMarsface, the competition requires people to write in their suggested names for the new ExoMars Rover.
As well as the honour of naming the rover, whoever wins the competition will be toured around the Airbus facility in Stevenage where the rover is being built.

Science minister Sam Gyimah said: "Exploring the surface of another planet is what many scientists and researchers dream of and now a British-built rover will travel the surface of Mars to answer some fundamental questions, and the public can be part of this exciting new chapter by naming the rover.



 "We want creative and bold entries - I'll start the ball rolling with Rover McRoverface!
"The ExoMars mission showcases the very best of the UK's world-leading robotics expertise and this mission will inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists and space enthusiasts to be part of the journey as the UK continues to reach for the stars."

The species of snake is believed to have inhabited the mega continent Gondwana roughly 105 million years ago.

The tiny snake's well-preserved skeleton (reconstruction on right) was found in a pebble-sized chunk of amber. Pic: Ming Bai, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Scientists have discovered the first-ever fossilised snake embryo, preserved in a pebble-sized chunk of amber from 105 million years ago.

Dating back to the Mesozoic period of the Cretaceous era, the fossil in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, provides revelatory new information about how modern snakes evolved.


Paleontologists from the University of Alberta have established that the snake species is linked to other ancient snakes from Argentina, Africa, India and Australia.
Professor Michael Caldwell of Albert's department of biological sciences said: "It is an important - and until now, missing - component of understanding snake evolution from southern continents, that is Gondwana, in the mid-Mesozoic."
Alongside

his international team in Australia, China and the US, Professor Caldwell has tracked the migration of these Gondwanan snakes, from the megacontinent Gondwana.
Their analysis of the amber fragment which preserved the fossil has given them important clues about the environment of the time.


"It is clear that this little snake was living in a forested environment with numerous insects and plants, as these are preserved in the clast," explained Professor Caldwell.
"Not only do we have the first baby snake, we also have the first definitive evidence of a fossil snake living in a forest."
Using CT scans, the scientific team studied the amber fossil and compared it with modern snakes' embryos.


What they found helped "refine our understanding of early snake evolution, as 100-million-year-old snakes are known from only 20 or so relatively complete fossil snake species," said Prof Caldwell.