Mars
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Space & Cosmos
Red Planet Roving: New Paper Document First Mars Mission Soil Sample
NASA’s patient Mars rover took this selfie in July 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS A new paper released today records the first soil, airfall Dust, and Rock Fragment samples collected by NASA for its return from Mars. Astrobiologists from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, lead the specimen selection team. This paper is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. Until…
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Space & Cosmos
The measurement of the ingenuity reveals the surprising wind speed of Mars.
NASA’s creative helicopter this view was generated on August 2, 2023 using data collected by Mastcam-Z on a MARS Rover, which is a distributor. Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU/MSSS One of my dissatisfaction in the “The Martian” movie was the depiction of the wind of Mars. Low air density means that high -speed type of high -speed winds that can be experienced on…
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Science
Why is one half of Mars so different from the other? ‘Marsquakes’ may reveal the answer
A map showing the “Mars dichotomy”: southern highlands are yellow and orange, northern lowlands are blue and green. Credit: NASA / JPL / USGS Mars is home to perhaps the solar system’s greatest mystery, the so-called “Martian dichotomy,” which has baffled scientists ever since it was discovered in the 1970s. Mars’ southern highlands (which make up about two-thirds of the…
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Space & Cosmos
New research says liquid water is unlikely to be found on Mars anytime soon
Two of the most discussed observations of potential liquid water activity on the surface of Mars. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2321067121 More than 100 years ago, astronomer Percival Lowell proposed the existence of canals on Mars designed to redistribute water from the planet’s ice sheets to lower, drier latitudes. This necessarily meant the presence…
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Space & Cosmos
NASA honors Algerian park with Mars namesake
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain NASA’s map of Mars now bears the names of three of Algeria’s iconic national parks, Algerian physicist Noureddine Merikechi, a member of the US space agency’s largest Mars exploration mission, told AFP. spoke. Tassili-Najjer National Park, Gouffi National Park and Giurjula National Park all found Mars’ namesake after Merikeki’s suggestion, which he called for both as…
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Space & Cosmos
Oldest direct evidence of hydrothermal activity on Mars discovered
A sample of the Martian meteorite known as Black Beauty. Credit: Curtin University/Aaron Kabosie New Curtin University-led research uncovers what may be the oldest direct evidence of ancient hydrothermal activity on Mars, revealing the planet may have been habitable at some point in its past It became. The study analyzed 4.45 billion-year-old zircon particles from the famous Martian meteorite NWA7034,…
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Space & Cosmos
A new Mars landing approach: How to land large payloads on Mars
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Back in 2007, I spoke with Rob Manning, a distinguished engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Then he said something shocking to me. Despite successfully leading entry, descent and landing (EDL) teams on three Mars rover missions, he said the prospect of landing a manned mission on Mars may be impossible. But after nearly 20 years…
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Space & Cosmos
Curiosity rover provides new insights into how Mars became uninhabitable
This is an artist’s concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue area) on its surface. Ancient regions of Mars have abundant traces of water, including landforms resembling valleys and deltas, and minerals that only form when liquid water is present. Scientists believe that billions of years ago, Mars’ atmosphere was dense and warm enough to form rivers, lakes,…
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Science
Nuclear rockets may reach Mars in half the time, but designing the reactors to power them is not easy
Nuclear-powered rockets may one day enable faster space travel. Credit: NASA NASA plans to send a crewed mission to Mars over the next decade, but the 140 million mile (225 million kilometer) journey there could take months or years round trip. This relatively long flight time is a result of the use of conventional chemical rocket fuel. The agency is…
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Space & Cosmos
Fossils in rocks frozen in time hint at ancient climate on Mars
An ancient giant ripple imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on Terra Sirenum, Mars, has consistent wavefront wavelengths, numerous cracks and craters, and may be partially covered by ancient lava flows. Courtesy of NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Long ago, wind and water currents shaped Mars’ soft sands and sediments into dunes, ripples, and other landform patterns called bedforms. Over…
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