News tagged with mars science

Organic carbon from Mars, but not biological

(Phys.org) -- Molecules containing large chains of carbon and hydrogen--the building blocks of all life on Earth--have been the targets of missions to Mars from Viking to the present day. While these molecules ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers find new form of Mars lava flow

High-resolution photos of lava flows on Mars reveal coiling spiral patterns that resemble snail or nautilus shells. Such patterns have been found in a few locations on Earth, but never before on Mars. The ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Meteorite shockwaves trigger dust avalanches on Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dust avalanches around impact craters on Mars appear to be the result of the shock wave preceding the actual impact, according to a study led by an undergraduate student at the UA.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Wet and mild: Researchers take the temperature of Mars's past

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have directly determined the surface temperature of early Mars for the first time, providing evidence that's consistent with ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

NASA's next Mars rover to land at Gale Crater (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Winds of change strike Mars, too

Mysterious dark sand dunes around Mars' northern polar cap are shifting with the seasons, as carbon dioxide gas changes form and sparks landscape-altering avalanches, said a study published Thursday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 03, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Rocks on Mars may provide link to evidence of living organisms 4 billion years ago

A new article in press of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters unveils groundbreaking research on the hydrothermal formation of Clay-Carbonate rocks in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The findin ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 29, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (16) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Mars rover instrument helps identify outcrop of long-sought rare rock on Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's amazing what cleaning your glasses can reveal. A mineral-scouting instrument developed at Arizona State University has found an outcrop of rock rich in carbonates in the Columbia Hills ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 03, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Phoenix Mars Lander is Silent, New Image Shows Damage

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ended operations after repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft were unsuccessful. A new image transmitted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows signs ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 24, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Life on Mars theory boosted by new methane study

Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in research published tomorrow in Earth an ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (32) | comments 11

Scientists see water ice in fresh meteorite craters on Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are seeing sub-surface water ice that may be 99 percent pure halfway between the north pole and the equator on Mars, thanks to quick-turnaround observations from orbit of fresh ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 3

Opportunity Rover Sees Variable Environmental History at Martian Victoria Crater

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions of years at a Martian crater.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 21, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 2

Mars explorer says we'll find life on other planets within 10 years

Within 10 years, we'll find life outside Earth -- that's the prediction of Peter Smith, the University of Arizona professor who led NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 21, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (44) | comments 11

Mountain on Mars may answer big question

The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest, but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 04, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (17) | comments 1

Gullies on Mars show tantalizing signs of recent water activity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Planetary geologists at Brown University have found a gully fan system on Mars that formed about 1.25 million years ago. The fan offers compelling evidence that it was formed by melt water ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 02, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (19) | comments 15