Tag Archive for 'Mars'

InSight captured this image of one of its dust-covered solar panels on April 24, 2022. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight is Gradually Losing Solar Power, NASA Says

May 18, 2022 by News Staff

By December 2022, NASA expects its InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander to have become inoperative,...

$A polished section of the Martian meteorite Miller Range (MIL) 03346: (A) photograph of the interior of MIL 03346,230; note the yellow tint in the left region of the sample, marked by dotted lines; mineral grains in the yellow-tinted region are heavily affected by aqueous alteration; (B) BSE image of the same section as in (A); light gray olivine grains, marked with arrows, are situated in the altered areas; the white boxes show locations for detailed images in (C) to (F); (C) BSE image of the upper left olivine grain, marked with a box in (B); iddingsite veins are cutting through a fractured olivine grain; augite grains and a fine-grained mesostasis (dark gray) containing titanomagnetite (bright, skeletal grains) are also shown in the figure; (D) photograph of the upper left olivine grain, same as in (C); iddingsite veins have a dark red color; (E) BSE image showing details of the upper right olivine grain; the grain is fractured and crosscut by iddingsite veins that are predominantly oriented east to west in the image; (F) photograph of the same grain as in (E), where the dark red iddingsite veins have been outlined. Image credit: Martell et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn3044.$

1.3-Billion-Year-Old Martian Meteorite Had Limited Exposure to Water, Study Finds

May 13, 2022 by News Staff

Using neutron and X-ray tomography, a team of planetary researchers from Lund University and elsewhere examined a section of Miller Range (MIL) 03346,...

An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Records Most Powerful Marsquake Yet

May 11, 2022 by News Staff

On May 4, 2022, NASA’s InSight lander detected a magnitude 5 quake on Mars — the strongest ever detected on another planet. The largest previously...

These dark slope streaks resulted from dust avalanches in Acheron Fossae, Mars. The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured them on December 3, 2006. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Planetary Scientists Crack Mystery of Martian Dust Avalanches

May 9, 2022 by News Staff

In the 2000s, planetary researchers spotted ghostly, blue-white morning frost on the Martian surface in visible light images from NASA’s Mars Odyssey...

This image, taken on July 19, 2021 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, shows part of Tantalus Fossae on Mars. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Focuses on Tantalus Fossae

May 5, 2022 by News Staff

A new image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a network of long grooves and scratches in Tantalus Fossae, a large fault system in the Arcadia quadrangle...

This image, taken on December 17, 2012 by ESA’s Mars Express, shows the icy cap that covers Mars’ south pole, composed of frozen water and carbon dioxide. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / Bill Dunford.

Martian Deposits of Carbon Dioxide Ice Flow as Glaciers: Study

May 3, 2022 by News Staff

Carbon dioxide ice is found in a stack of deposits at the south pole of Mars. These deposits are situated in basins, where they reach more than 1 km thick....

This image of the backshell and supersonic parachute of NASA’s Perseverance rover was captured by the agency’s Ingenuity helicopter during its 26th flight on Mars on April 19, 2022. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ingenuity Spots Perseverance Rover’s Landing Equipment on Mars

Apr 29, 2022 by News Staff

On April 19, 2022, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter recently surveyed both the parachute that helped the Perseverance rover land on Mars and the cone-shaped...

Schematic view of the propagation of seismic waves in the Martian crust and seismic conversions at the base of the discontinuity, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Image credit: IPGP.

NASA’s InSight Mission Detects Two Far-Side Marsquakes

Apr 27, 2022 by News Staff

In 2021, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) — the seismometer placed on the surface of Mars by NASA’s Interior Exploration using...

The landing site of InSight is marked by a blue triangle, while black stars denote the two identified marsquakes. The solid black lines demonstrate the Graben faults. The lower left inset map shows the global Martian topography, and the blue rectangular illustrates the research region. Image credit: Sun & Tkalčić, doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29329-x.

Volcanic Activity Could Be Responsible for Triggering Marsquakes in Cerberus Fossae

Apr 6, 2022 by News Staff

Using seismic data from NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, planetary researchers...

Maurice et al. find that the speed of sound is slower on Mars than on Earth and that, mostly, a deep silence prevails. Image credit: Maurice et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04679-0.

Perseverance Characterizes Acoustic Environment of Mars

Apr 4, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover first recorded Martian sounds on February 19, 2021, the day after its arrival. These sounds fall within the human audible spectrum,...

This image shows Utopia Planitia, a plain that fills one of three major basins in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Sees Fascinating Ice-Related Features in Utopia Planitia

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

Utopia Planitia, a large lava plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, has a diameter of roughly 3,300 km (2,051 miles) — just under twice the north-south...

NASA’s Perseverance rover acquired this image on April 22, 2021, using its left Mastcam-Z camera. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA Extends Flight Operations of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity

Mar 21, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Ingenuity mission will support the science campaign of the agency’s Perseverance rover exploring the ancient river delta of Jezero Crater until...

This MAHLI image shows a tighter view of the flower-like rock artifact. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds ‘Coral’ on Mars

Mar 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has imaged a flower-like rock artifact in the Gale crater on Mars. This image from the MAHLI...

This image from ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter shows a giant impact crater in Acidalia Planitia on Mars. Image credit: ESA / CaSSIS / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Trace Gas Orbiter Spots ‘Tree Stump’ Crater on Mars

Feb 2, 2022 by News Staff

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has spotted an ice-rich impact crater in Acidalia Planitia, a Martian plain between the Tharsis volcanic province and Arabia...

This image from the Context Camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Bosporos Planum on Mars; the white specks are salt deposits found within a dry channel; the largest impact crater in the scene is nearly 1.5 km (one mile) across. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Water Flowed on Martian Surface as Recently as Two Billion Years Ago, Study Suggests

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

It’s commonly believed that Martian liquid water evaporated about 3 billion years ago, but a duo of planetary scientists from Caltech and Johns Hopkins...

Mattei et al. studied the antifreeze properties of exotic salts that exist on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / USGS / SwRI.

Brine-Ice Mixtures Exist beneath Martian South Polar Cap: Study

Jan 26, 2022 by News Staff

In 2018, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument onboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter found evidence of liquid...

This image shows a triple crater in Noachis Terra, Mars. The largest crater measures 45 km across, and the smallest 28 km. There are also signs of other sizeable craters, such as the round patches of sunken surface seen to the top right and bottom left. This image comprises data gathered by ESA’s Mars Express using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on August 6, 2020. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of the HRSC. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is to the right. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Study: Frequency of Asteroid Impacts in Inner Solar System Constant over Past 600 Million Years

Jan 21, 2022 by News Staff

Using a novel crater detection algorithm, which automatically counts the visible impact craters from a high-resolution image, a team of planetary researchers...

A selfie taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2291 (January 15, 2019) at the ‘Rock Hall’ drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity’s Samples from Martian Crater Strongly Depleted in Carbon-13, Researchers Say

Jan 18, 2022 by News Staff

An analysis of carbon isotopes in sediment samples taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover from Gale crater, Mars, leave planetary researchers with three plausible...

$Possible scenarios of terrestrial planet formation: in the classic Wetherill-type model of oligarchic growth, the terrestrial planets formed by mutual collisions among Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos after the gas disk dissipated and accreted only a small fraction of CC planetesimals, which were scattered inward during Jupiter’s growth and/or putative migration; alternatively, the terrestrial planets may have formed within the lifetime of the gas disk by efficiently accreting ‘pebbles’ from the outer Solar System, which drift sunward through the disk due to gas drag; the two models differ in the amount of outer solar system material accreted by the terrestrial planets, which may be quantified using nucleosynthetic isotope anomalies. Image credit: Burkhardt et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abj7601.$

Earth and Other Terrestrial Planets Formed from Inner Solar System Material, Study Suggests

Dec 28, 2021 by News Staff

Two fundamentally different processes of rocky planet formation exist, but it is unclear which one built the Earth and other terrestrial solar system planets....

Trace Gas Orbiter Finds Water Ice in Martian Polar Crater

Dec 27, 2021 by News Staff

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter has returned a stunning image of a 4-km- (2.5-mile) wide crater located in Vastitas Borealis, the largest lowland region of Mars. The...

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