The Spirit Rover on Mars has been failing to store its daily data before powering down. This memory problem may slow plans to dislodge the craft from the soils of Troy, where it has been stuck since April.
Glen Cushing, a U.S. Geological Survey space scientist, suggests that craters near Mars’ Arsia Mons volcano could be collapse features above caves or lava tubes.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove just 700 meters after finding the “Block Island” meteorite and spotted another! This one is about 47 centimeters long and has been named “Shelter Island”.
“New, three-dimensional imaging of Martian north-polar ice layers by a radar instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is consistent with theoretical models of Martian climate swings during the past few million years.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
NASA has released thousands of new images from the Mars High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. One of the new images is the Pit Crater Chain located south of Arisa Mons.
Could evidence of life on Mars be preserved in structures similar to the stromatolites found on Earth? If microbial communities once flourished there the traces left behind might be similar to stromatolites or microbial reefs.
This article from the University of Michigan discusses the occurrence of lightning, in conjunction with dust storms, on Mars. The lightning has apparently occurred in the absence of rain.
This is a short video about how our perception of Mars has changed. Recent expeditions have given us a better understanding of what’s happening on the Red Planet.
“These images show examples of columnar jointing on Mars (top) and Earth (below) at the exact same scale. The top image shows layers of solidified lava flows exposed on the rim of a 16-kilometer-diamter crater in the Marte Vallis region on Mars. This image…shows the first columnar joints positively identified on a planet other than Earth.” Quoted from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Billions of years ago, Earth and Mars were hit with a barrage of meteorites. How did this affect the planets? Some speculations are revealed in this article from the Imperial College London.
NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover made many interesting observations during its nearly three years on Mars. This article summarizes some of the discoveries.
Most of the evidence for significant amounts of water on the surface of Mars is thought to be at least 3 billion years old. Evidence for water at much later times is the subject of an article at ScienceNOW.
Mars had a strong magnetic field for about 500 million years, then something happened to significantly reduce it. Without the magnetic field, ionizing particles from the sun ripped away its atmosphere and made an environment that would have been very difficult for life.
A short summary of two papers that describe what might be mud volcanoes spotted on HiRISE camera images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can be found at the Arizona Geology Blog.
Google has updated the Mars facet of Google Earth. They have added historical maps, tours of the planet, and a new collection of satellite images from the THEMIS camera, with more images being added as they are transmitted to Earth.
Images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show structures that may have been formed by ancient hot springs. Scientists speculate if these springs might have been a location where life existed.
NASA engineers and students at the California Institute of Technology have produced a low-mass robot that can rappel, travel over steep and rocky terrain, and descend into craters. They believe that “Axel” might explore difficult terrain on Mars.
Google, NASA and others have teamed up to add yet another feature to the Google Earth program. Google Mars 3D gives people the opportunity to “fly” around and get a close-up look at the planet. It is part of Google Earth 5.0, which also includes ocean layers and other upgrades.
The HIRSE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment project has an interesting image of a fresh impact crater on Mars.
Here’s how they determined that it was a very young crater…. “HiRISE reveals very fine details of the crater and ejecta. The most striking feature about the crater is the number of boulders around it. The largest boulders are as much as 9-10 m across, larger than a car. Many smaller boulders are also visible, down to the limit of what HiRISE can resolve. The largest boulders occur near the rim or have fallen back into the crater, while smaller rocks were thrown much further. No other crater in the image shows similar numbers of boulders, so this crater is much younger than the others.”
It is theorized that in lieu of plate tectonics, some of Mars’ features have been formed by “shell tectonics”. The entire crust of Mars could be moving as a single shell.
Methane plumes have been detected in the atmosphere of Mars. Because methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere these plumes are a sign of sustained methane release. The source could be organisms or a geological process.
Large rocks on Mars create organized patterns while traveling into the wind. How is this possible? University of Calgary assistant geoscience professor Andrew Leier did some experiments to find out.
It is thought that billions of years ago, an asteroid the size of Texas hit Mars. This event may have triggered the largest known landslide in history – a landslide with the area of the United States.
“After surviving a long, cold winter on Mars, both Spirit and Opportunity are on the move again, heading for intriguing science features.” This will be year #5 for the Rovers which were only expected to last a few months.
Russia and China are planning a joint mission to photograph Mars in 2009. Designers are researching how the solar-powered probe can remain functional during the cold, dark spells it will encounter.
“Vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris persist today at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on Mars, says new research using ground-penetrating radar on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.” Quoted from the UT Austin article.
“NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot’s arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander’s instruments.” Quoted from the NASA release.
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