A Machine Learning Tool Supports the Search for New Craters on Mars

Medicine & Technology Oct 02, 2020

Planetary scientists and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have collaborated on a machine learning tool that helped discover new craters on Mars - including small impacts left by a meteor about eight years ago.

Martian Dust Storms and Dust Towers May Have Been the Reason Behind The Disappearance of Water in the Planet

Dec 05, 2019

Astronomers believed that these dust particles once trapped water vapor and had used these dust towers like an elevator to rise to the planet's atmosphere where solar radiation would eventually break their molecules apart.

Jezero Crater Hosts Rich Amounts of Hydrated Silica—a Mineral Perfect for Preserving Biosignatures

Nov 15, 2019

Researchers from Brown University developed a technique that will help scientists find rare and hard-to-detect mineral data taken from the orbiting spacecraft.

Beagle 2 Discovered Intact on Mars Surface

Jan 17, 2015

NASA has found the doomed spacecraft Beagle 2 on the surface of Mars, and it appears to be intact. High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified its landing location, and with closer examination it seems the craft landed on Mars safely.

Organics on Mars—Could Life Be Sustained on Red Planet?

Dec 17, 2014

While there are many requisite features for a planet to be host to forms of life, even as simple as archaea species, the most important known feature is the existence of organic molecules from which they can be created. And though there are still many questions left unanswered about our red neighbor on the galactic block, Mars, researchers from NASA say that the Curiosity Rover Mission has successfully identified methane and other organics which may give their teams a better insight into the possible watery past of our solar system’s famed “Red Planet”.

NASA Finds Mars Craters May Have Once Been Seasonal Lakes

Dec 10, 2014

Ever imagine that the red planet’s surface may once have had a different appearance? Well while researchers at NASA have had rovers scoping out Mars’ surface for years, new information received from NASA’s Curiosity Rover suggests that the planet’s craters may once have served a different purpose, and that the arid red planet may once have had long-lasting above ground lakes. Though new evidence challenges the popular theory that water on the planet only existed in the liquid form underground in aquifers, evidence of above ground lakes would undoubtedly mean that the planet was much more likely to sustain life some time ago.

Next Stop for Curiosity Rover? Lava Mound May Hold Answers to Ancient Martian Lava Flows

Dec 09, 2014

While NASA’s Curiosity Rover revealed a possible location for reoccurring lakes on the surface of the red planet last week, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is finding even larger discoveries from its vantage point in the sky. Capturing new images with its HiRISE camera, one of six onboard instruments used by the orbiter, Reconnaissance has found evidence of one of the largest lava mounds found to date. And while it looks like a crispy pie pulled right from the oven, researchers say that the 1.2-mile wide circle of Martian crust is composed of iron-rich metamorphic rock, created thousands of years ago in a series of lava flows.

Future Mars Missions Threatened by Cosmic Radiation

Oct 22, 2014

Young would-be space explorers received some bad news this week. Due to the Sun entering in to a phase of relatively low solar activity, cosmic radiation is projected to increase to such levels that any prolonged manned space expedition would prove harmful and even deadly to the astronauts involved.

Watch: NASA Moves Martian Orbiters to Avoid Comet Siding Spring

Oct 20, 2014

Mars had a close call this past weekend as a comet passed so close to the Red Planet that NASA moved its three Mars orbiters to the opposite side of the planet hoping to shield them from the dust and gas debris left by the tail of Comet Siding Spring.

NASA’s Spacecrafts ‘Duck And Cover’ Behind Mars as Comet Passes Through

Oct 20, 2014

It’s been a flyby anticipated for months, and one whose arrival sparked much commotion at NASA’s headquarters this past weekend. Hurtling through the night sky at nearly 125,000 miles per hour, Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring passed right by the planet Mars early Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19, coming in close contact with the Martian outer atmosphere at about 2:27pm ET.