Tag Archive for 'Mars'

A solar storm approaches Mars. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s MAVEN Team: Solar Storms Stripped Away Mars’ Atmosphere

Nov 6, 2015 by News Staff

Thanks to NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter, scientists have learned more about what happened to the Martian climate since...

This mini-panorama was taken by NASA’s Spirit rover on August 23, 2005, just as the rover finally completed its intrepid climb up Husband Hill. The summit appears to be a windswept plateau of scattered rocks, little sand dunes and small exposures of outcrop. The approximate true-color view spans about 90 degrees and consists of images obtained by the rover’s panoramic camera during 18 individual pointings. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell.

Planetary Scientist Finds Evidence of Corrosive Acid Fog on Mars

Nov 2, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Shoshanna Cole, a planetary researcher at Ithaca College, has pieced together a compelling story about how acidic water vapors may have eaten at the...

This image of part of the Mangala Valles outflow channel system was acquired by ESA’s Mars Express on July 12, 2015. The region has been subject to intense episodes of flooding, likely triggered by volcanic processes occurring in the nearby Tharsis region. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Sees Evidence of Flooding in Red Planet’s Mangala Valles Region

Oct 19, 2015 by News Staff

This new image from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows the central part of Mangala Valles, a system of channels on Mars. The image was taken by Mars Express’...

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took this composite image of Mount Sharp on September 9, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Sends ‘Mineral-Rich’ Postcard from Mars

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

This dramatic view looking toward the higher regions of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile (5 km) peak at the center of Red Planet’s Gale Crater, was taken on September...

Oblique view of the Phlegra Montes region showing remnant glacier and eskers. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find Evidence of Meltwater Flows beneath Ancient Glacier on Mars

Oct 1, 2015 by News Staff

A team of European planetary scientists has found direct evidence of melting and significant flows of liquid water beneath a degraded glacier in the southern...

This image of an impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 30, 2015. The crater is approximately 3,300 feet (1-km) wide and appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / Alfred McEwen.

NASA Scientists Find Evidence for Seasonal Water Flows on Mars

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

Using an imaging spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, agency’s planetary scientists have detected signatures of hydrated minerals on...

Channels in Kasei Valles, Mars. Image credit: MarsTrek / NASA.

Study Sheds New Light on Origins of Outflow Channels on Mars

Sep 11, 2015 by News Staff

Catastrophic floods generated 3.2 billion years ago by rapid groundwater outbursts scoured the Solar System’s largest flood channels on Mars. Based on...

Mars Express Sees Red Planet’s South Pole

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

This new image from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows the planet’s south polar ice cap and ancient, cratered highlands. The high-resolution HRSC camera...

The young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 m deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 km. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

What Would Alien Lifeforms on Titan and Mars-Type Exoplanets Be Like?

Aug 27, 2015 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the journal Life, Prof Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University and his colleagues from Germany draw upon what is...

A noticeable feature of the Atlantis basin is the several hundred mesas and small peaks strewn ‘chaotically’ across its roughly 200-km expanse. The uppermost layer of these elevated areas consists of light-colored material. Spectroscopic measurements have shown these consist of phyllosilicates, minerals produced in the presence of water. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Fly Over Mars’ Atlantis Basin in New Video

Aug 21, 2015 by News Staff

A virtual flight across the Atlantis basin reveals a broad variety of phenomena, etched into this landscape billions of years ago. The animation is based...

Scientists Find Evidence for Ancient Lake in Meridiani Planum on Mars

Aug 7, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists – led by Dr Brian Hynek from the University of Colorado Boulder – has discovered evidence of an ancient lake that likely...

An artist’s depiction of Earth’s magnetic field deflecting high-energy protons from the Sun around 4 billion years ago. Image credit: Michael Osadciw / University of Rochester.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Older than Thought, Says New Study

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

American and Canadian scientists have reported in the latest issue of Science that the magnetic field of our planet is at least 4 billion years old, up...

Igneous clast named Harrison embedded in a conglomerate rock in Gale crater shows elongated light-toned feldspar crystals. The mosaic merges an image from Curiosity’s Mastcam with higher-resolution images from ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / LANL / IRAP / U. Nantes / IAS / MSSS.

Curiosity Finds Evidence for Continental Crust on Early Mars

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team headed by Dr Violaine Sautter from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, Martian crustal components bear a strong...

Map of MAVEN’s auroral detections in December 2014 overlaid on the surface of Mars: the map shows that the aurora was widespread in the northern hemisphere, not tied to any geographic location. Image credit: University of Colorado.

MAVEN Sheds New Light on Atmosphere of Mars

Jun 24, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft has observed three phenomena in the atmosphere of Mars: a polar plume of escaping atmospheric...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Martian Ocean May Never Have Existed

Jun 17, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets suggests that a frigid, icy planet 3 – 4 billion years ago better...

A meteorite from the Red Planet. Image credit: Michael Helfenbein.

Researchers Discover Traces of Methane in Meteorites from Mars

Jun 16, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of scientists led by Dr Nigel Blamey of Brock University and the University of Aberdeen, UK, has found methane in fragments of Martian...

This artist’s concept shows two MarCO CubeSats and the Mars lander InSight. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Two CubeSats Will Accompany NASA’s InSight Lander to Mars in 2016

Jun 15, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s two small Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats will be flying past Mars in 2016 just as the agency’s next Mars lander, InSight (Interior Exploration...

Deposits of impact glass have been preserved in Martian craters, including Alga Crater, shown here. In color coding based on analysis of data from the CRISM instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, green indicates the presence of glass; blues are pyroxene; reds are olivine. This view shows Alga Crater’s central peak, which is about 3 miles (5 km) wide within the 12-mile (19-km) diameter of this southern-hemisphere crater. The information from CRISM is shown over a terrain model and image based on observations by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of two. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / JHUAPL / University of Arizona.

Scientists Detect Large Deposits of Impact Glass on Mars

Jun 9, 2015 by News Staff

Glasses formed by asteroid impacts are an important target to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, but until now they have not been detected on the...

This image of an impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 30, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / Alfred McEwen.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Beams Back Close-Up Photo of Fresh Crater

Jun 8, 2015 by News Staff

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an impressive picture of a fresh...

This image was captured by the Mars Express orbiter on November 19, 2014. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

Mars Express Sees Strange Craters in Arabia Terra

Jun 2, 2015 by News Staff

This new image from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows bluish wind-blown deposits inside eroded craters in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. This image...

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