Tag Archive for 'Mars'

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust

Dec 24, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’...

A stunning view of Mars from the north pole to the equator. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA Releases Stunning New Image of Mars

Dec 20, 2017 by News Staff

In this stunning image taken by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, Mars is seen with north at the bottom, and the equator at the top. A stunning view of...

Mars may have been enveloped in a steamy atmosphere as the planet’s crust cooled and solidified. That ‘steam bath’ could have created many of the clay mineral deposits that have long been attributed to water flow on or just beneath the Martian surface. Image credit: Kevin Cannon.

Research Suggests Martian Clays Formed in Ancient ‘Steam Bath’

Dec 7, 2017 by News Staff

On Mars, phyllosilicate (clay) minerals are widespread in terrains that date back to the Noachian period, 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. Phyllosilicates...

$This false-color image demonstrates how use of special filters available on Curiosity’s Mastcam camera can reveal the presence of certain minerals in target rocks. It is a composite of images taken through three ‘science’ filters chosen for making hematite stand out as exaggerated purple. Mastcam’s narrow-band filters used for this view help to increase spectral contrast, making blues bluer and reds redder, particularly with the processing used to boost contrast in each of the component images of this composite. Fine-grained hematite preferentially absorbs sunlight around in the green portion of the spectrum around 527 nm. That gives it the purple look from a combination of red and blue light reflected by the hematite and reaching the camera through the other two filters. Bright lines within the rocks are fractures filled with calcium sulfate minerals. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.$

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Mineral Hematite on Mars

Nov 12, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found spectral evidence of an iron-oxide mineral called hematite (Fe2O3) on a rock near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, Mars. This...

This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Mars 2020 rover on the surface of the Red Planet. The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself. The rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Will Have 23 Cameras

Nov 2, 2017 by News Staff

According to NASA, the agency’s next Mars rover will have more cameras than any rover before it: a grand total of 23, to create sweeping panoramas, reveal...

Artist’s conception of the complex magnetic field environment at Mars. Yellow lines represent magnetic field lines from the Sun carried by the solar wind, blue lines represent Martian surface magnetic fields, white sparks are reconnection activity, and red lines are reconnected magnetic fields that link the surface to space via the Martian magnetotail. Image credit: Anil Rao / University of Colorado / MAVEN / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Mars Has a Twisted Magnetotail, NASA Research Reveals

Oct 20, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research using data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft, the Red Planet has an invisible magnetic...

Artist’s concept of a colony on Mars. Image credit: NASA.

Plasma Technology Could Hold Key to Creating Oxygen Supply on Mars

Oct 19, 2017 by News Staff

A study published in the journal Plasma Sources Science and Technology argues that Mars, with its 96% carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere, has nearly ideal...

Powerful Solar Storms Could Electrically Charge Mars’ Moon Phobos

Oct 18, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Advances in Space Research suggests that solar storms create a complex electrical environment around Phobos, giving...

Mars’ Eridania Basin Once Held Vast Sea

Oct 9, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has identified what appear to be ancient hydrothermal deposits in the Eridania region in the southern highlands...

This image combines two products from the first pointing at Phobos by Mars Odyssey’s THEMIS camera. Surface-temperature information from observation in thermal-infrared wavelengths is overlaid on a more detailed image from a visible-light observation. The left edge of the small moon was in darkness, and the right edge in morning sunlight. The distance to Phobos from Mars Odyssey during the observation was about 3,424 miles (5,511 km). Researchers will analyze the surface-temperature information from this observation and possible future THEMIS observations to learn how quickly the surface warms after sunup or cools after sundown. That could provide information about surface materials, because larger rocks heat or cool more slowly than smaller particles do. The thermal information in this image is from merging observations made in four thermal-infrared wavelength bands, centered from 11.04 microns to 14.88 microns. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Arizona State University.

Mars Odyssey Captures Phobos in Infrared Light

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft observed Phobos — the larger and inner of the two natural...

Mars Odyssey spotted possible water ice in the Medusa Fossae area of Mars, which is in an equatorial region of the planet to the lower left in this view. Image credit: Steve Lee, University of Colorado / Jim Bell, Cornell University / Mike Wolff, Space Science Institute / NASA.

NASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter Spots Possible Water Ice near Martian Equator

Oct 2, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered evidence of significant hydration near the Martian equator. Mars Odyssey spotted possible water ice in...

Artist’s conception of MAVEN’s Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) observing Martian aurora, which is similar to Earth’s Aurora borealis but has a different origin. Image credit: University of Colorado.

NASA: Recent Solar Storm Sparked Global Aurora on Mars

Oct 2, 2017 by News Staff

A solar event on September 11, 2017 sparked a global aurora on the Red Planet more than 25 times brighter than any previously seen by NASA’s MAVEN (Mars...

A young planetary system. Image credit: NASA / FUSE / Lynette Cook.

Research Sheds Light on Sequence of Events that Led to Creation of Earth and Mars

Sep 27, 2017 by News Staff

New research, reported in the journal Nature, changes scientists’ understanding of how terrestrial planets attain their physical and chemical characteristics. A...

Aeolis Dorsa, Mars: the dotted white arrow points to curved strata recording point bar growth and river migration; the boundaries of ancient valley walls are defined by textural and albedo changes and are also associated with lateral river migration; stacked above the point bars and completely confined within the dotted white and black lines are topographically inverted river deposits outcropping as ridges (e.g., black arrow); in places (e.g., south of the dotted white arrow), the ridges run against the dotted boundaries, suggesting flow was once redirected along a valley wall. Image credit: Cardenas et al, doi: 10.1130/B31567.1.

Planetary Researchers Find More Evidence of Water on Early Mars

Sep 19, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

River deposits exist across the Martian surface. A large sedimentary basin named Aeolis Dorsa contains some of the planet’s most spectacular and densely...

A new map of the thickness of the Martian crust shows less variation between thicker regions (red) and thinner regions (blue), compared to earlier mapping. This view is centered on Valles Marineris, with the Tharsis Montes near the terminator to its west. The map is based on modeling of Mars’ gravity field by Goossens et al. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / UMBC / MIT / E. Mazarico.

Martian Crust is Relatively Porous, Planetary Scientists Find

Sep 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Sander Goossens of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has found evidence that the crust of the Red Planet is not as...

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Martian Moon Phobos

Jul 21, 2017 by News Staff

When the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed Mars near opposition on May 12, 2016, Phobos — the larger and inner of the two natural satellites...

This image shows Watson 021, a single H7 ordinary chondrite, weighing 135 g. The sample has a large crack, lined with alteration minerals, that runs down its middle and only one third of its fusion crust remains intact. This meteorite shows near complete oxidation of its reduced metal and sulfide phases making this a W4 chondrite. Watson 021 is extensively shocked, exhibiting globular silicate metal emulsions and shock veins that crosscut the sample. Tait et al found that microbial communities in samples of Nullarbor Plain soil are more diverse than those in Watson 021 and other meteorites, which are highly uniform in their species evenness and species richness. Image credit: Tait et al, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01227.

Research Opens New Way to Understand Possible Martian Life through Meteorites

Jul 20, 2017 by News Staff

New research from Monash University and the University of Queensland has added a new dimension to understanding life on the Red Planet with the discovery...

Artist’s conception of the dust and gas surrounding a newly formed planetary system. Image credit: NASA.

Earth’s Water Explained by Gas Giant Gluttony

Jul 19, 2017 by James Romero

Water on Earth, Mars and everywhere within the inner Solar System can be traced back to the rapid waist-expanding growth of Jupiter and Saturn, which knocked...

An illustration of an asteroid on its way to ancient Mars. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / Nathan Owen-Price / Sci.News.

Mars’ Two-Faces and Moons Could Result from an Early Cataclysmic Impact

Jul 4, 2017 by James Romero

Mars experienced a single colossal impact during its first 130 million years, the equivalent to the largest body in the today’s asteroid belt slamming...

The exaggerated color makes Curiosity appear bluer than it really looks. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Views Curiosity Climbing Mount Sharp

Jun 22, 2017 by News Staff

Using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera — the most powerful camera ever to orbit another planet, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance...

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