Powerful electrical events quickly alter surface chemistry on Mars and other planetary bodies
Thinking like Earthlings may have caused scientists to overlook the electrochemical effects of Martian dust storms.
Thinking like Earthlings may have caused scientists to overlook the electrochemical effects of Martian dust storms.
Space Exploration
Dec 15, 2020
7
56
Floods of unimaginable magnitude once washed through Gale Crater on Mars' equator around 4 billion years ago—a finding that hints at the possibility that life may have existed there, according to data collected by NASA's ...
Space Exploration
Nov 20, 2020
8
2132
Mars is about to get a new stream of weather reports, once NASA's Perseverance rover touches down on Feb. 18, 2021. As it scours Jezero Crater for signs of ancient microbial life, Perseverance will collect the first planetary ...
Space Exploration
Nov 16, 2020
1
89
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has a new selfie. This latest is from a location named "Mary Anning," after a 19th-century English paleontologist whose discovery of marine-reptile fossils were ignored for generations because ...
Space Exploration
Nov 12, 2020
0
5499
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has a challenging road ahead: After having to make it through the harrowing entry, descent, and landing phase of the mission on Feb. 18, 2021, it will begin searching for traces of microscopic ...
Space Exploration
Sep 22, 2020
5
927
Future spacecrafts bound for the moon or beyond will benefit from high-powered computer simulations underway at the University of Michigan that model the particulate mayhem set in motion by rocket thruster-powered landings.
Space Exploration
Jul 30, 2020
0
7
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has started a road trip that will continue through the summer across roughly a mile (1.6 kilometers) of terrain. By trip's end, the rover will be able to ascend to the next section of the 3-mile-tall ...
Space Exploration
Jul 7, 2020
0
1824
In our continuing search for other life in the universe, one place has always looked promising—Mars. It is a rocky planet like Earth, orbiting the same star, and at a distance where water could have been present on the ...
Space Exploration
Jul 3, 2020
2
182
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover occasionally stops to stargaze. Recently, it captured a shot of Earth and Venus in the Red Planet's night sky.
Space Exploration
Jun 15, 2020
0
56
By studying the chemical elements on Mars today—including carbon and oxygen—scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had the conditions necessary to support life.
Astronomy
May 19, 2020
7
1952