Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 17, 2024
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently captured an image of the retired InSight lander, offering insights into dust accumulation on Mars. Taken on Oct. 23 using the orbiter's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the image reveals InSight's solar panels now share the same reddish-brown hue as the Martian surface. InSight, which landed in November 2018, was

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 23, 2024
I have always loved the mountains. Growing up on the flat plains of Midwestern USA, every summer I looked forward to spending a few days on alpine trails while on vacation. Climbing upward from the trailhead, the views changed constantly. After climbing a short distance, the best views were often had by looking back down on where we had started. As we climbed higher, views of the valleys below e

Paris, France (SPX) Dec 20, 2024
The latest image from ESA's Mars Express offers a stunning glimpse of Mars' south pole, resembling a winter wonderland with its icy hilltops and snow-like layers. However, this scenic view belies the reality of summer on Mars, where the Sun's heat drives the retreat of seasonal ice formations. A closer examination of the left side of the image reveals dark areas where the carbon dioxide ic

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 20, 2024
A new study explores how variations in Mars' crustal thickness during its ancient history may have influenced the planet's magmatic evolution and hydrological systems. The research, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, suggests that the thick crust of Mars' southern highlands formed billions of years ago generated granitic magmas and sustained vast underground aquifers, challenging

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 20, 2024
A groundbreaking achievement by scientists at the University of Houston is changing our understanding of climate and weather on Mars and providing critical insights into Earth's atmospheric processes as well. The study, led by Larry Guan, a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UH's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, under the guidance of his advisors, Professor Liming

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 23, 2024
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has expanded its role in solar system research, revealing a previously undetectable population of small asteroids within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used Webb's observations of the star TRAPPIST-1 to identify 138 new asteroids ranging in size from a bus to a stadium. These

Algiers (AFP) Dec 19, 2024
NASA's mapping of Mars now bears the names of three iconic Algerian national parks, Algerian physicist Noureddine Melikechi, a member of the US space agency's largest Mars probe mission, has told AFP. The Tassili n'Ajjer, Ghoufi and Djurdjura national parks have found their Martian namesakes after a proposition by Melikechi, which he sought as both a tribute to his native Algeria and a call

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 17, 2024
Are the spacecraft, rovers, and debris from human exploration of Mars merely trash cluttering the Red Planet, or are they invaluable artifacts chronicling humanity's steps into interplanetary exploration? University of Kansas anthropologist Justin Holcomb contends these items deserve preservation and cataloging to document this significant phase of human history. Holcomb's new study, title

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 17, 2024
More than a century after astronomer Percival Lowell speculated about water canals on Mars, researchers continue to grapple with the question of liquid water on the red planet. Liquid water is essential for habitability, but Mars' low temperatures, minimal atmospheric pressure, and limited water vapor make its presence unlikely under current conditions. Dark surface features called recurri

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 16, 2024
As NASA develops a blueprint for space exploration throughout the solar system for the benefit of humanity, the agency released several new documents Friday updating its Moon to Mars architecture. The roadmap sets NASA on course for long-term lunar exploration under the Artemis campaign in preparation for future crewed missions to Mars. Following an Architecture Concept Review, the 2024 up

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 13, 2024
Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and AeroVironment are completing a detailed assessment of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's final flight on Jan. 18, 2024, which will be published in the next few weeks as a NASA technical report. Designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, Ingenuity was the first aircraf

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 13, 2024
NASA's Perseverance rover has successfully climbed to the top of Jezero Crater's rim, reaching a landmark location called "Lookout Hill." This achievement follows months of challenging terrain navigation and marks the beginning of an exploration phase into an entirely new region on Mars. The ascent, which spanned 3 0.5 months and climbed 1,640 vertical feet (500 meters), included traversin

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 10, 2024
A team of planetary scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder has shed new light on the dynamics behind Mars' infamous dust storms. These events, which sometimes enshroud the entire planet in fine particles, may be triggered by warmer and sunnier conditions on the Martian surface. Lead researcher Heshani Pieris emphasized the importance of understanding these storms for the safety

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 05, 2024
Dry river channels and lake beds on Mars point to the long-ago presence of a liquid on the planet's surface, and the minerals observed from orbit and from landers seem to many to prove that the liquid was ordinary water. Not so fast, the authors of a new Perspectives article in Nature Geoscience suggest. Water is only one of two possible liquids under what are

Tucson AZ (SPX) Dec 05, 2024
A mysterious object discovered in the main asteroid belt in 2021 was determined to be a main-belt comet by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh, Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Audrey Thirouin of Lowell Observatory. Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter - rather than the cold outer Solar System wh