The gleaming skyscrapers and bright lights of the United Arab Emirates draw the eyes of all who travel there, a sign of the Arabian Peninsula nation’s rapid, oil-fueled development over the last decades into a major hub for commerce and tourism.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is assessing damage to its launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing, creating a giant orange fireball seen and felt for miles around.

Past research has indicated Mars’s largest northern basin, Utopia Planitia, was once the location of a large body of water, but details surrounding when this body of water may have existed have not been resolved. Researchers have now identified a ring of minerals in the region that have helped them string together a timeline of what happened there. The new study, published in Nature Communications, provides details about the ocean’s timeline and what it says about life on Mars.

Think about a census. You could photograph every house in the country and produce a beautiful map, but without knocking on doors and asking questions, you’d know almost nothing about the people living in them.