Volcanic Activity Linked to A Warm and Wet Ancient Mars
Exploratory missions to Mars, such as NASA’s Curiosity Rover, have provided more and more evidence that Mars at one time was warm enough for water to flow on its surface. Now a new study published in the journal “Nature Geoscience” has found that those ancient, warm periods on the Red Planet probably took place in […]
Science Images of the Week
Science Scanner: Curiosity’s Mars Selfie, Jurassic Caterpillar & an X-ray of Dark Matter?
Odd X-ray Signal Might be Sign of Dark Matter Strange X-ray emissions from galaxy clusters– hundreds of galaxies connected to each other by gravity–are providing clues about mysterious dark matter. Dark matter–if it really does exist–is thought to be invisible, doesn’t produce or attract light, and makes up a majority, 84.5 percent, of the matter […]
Curiosity Determines Age of Martian Rocks
The Curiosity Rover has accomplished yet another first as it continues its amazing journey across the Martian landscape. Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have been able to successfully determine the age of a Martian rock. But what makes this finding special is that, for the first time, scientists have been able to […]
Fresh Water Once Flowed in Ancient Mars Lake
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory – Curiosity Rover – was sent to Mars some 16 months ago with a major objective of finding evidence of a past environment that would be well suited to supporting microbial life. Today, a team of mission researchers, writing in a series of papers published in the journal Science, said that […]
Curiosity Rover Finds Water on Mars
The first scoop of Martian soil analyzed by Curiosity Rover’s built-in laboratory has revealed a high amount of water in the soil, according to NASA. “One of the most exciting results from this very first solid sample ingested by Curiosity is the high percentage of water in the soil,” said Curiosity researcher Laurie Leshin, of […]
Curiosity Begins Mars Roadtrip
Curiosity has taken off on a year-long roadtrip, which is how long it will take the Mars rover to travel the eight kilometers needed to reach its Mount Sharp destination. NASA said the journey began last week from an area called Glenelg, which is about 400 meters east-southeast of Curiosity’s landing site. According to mission […]
NASA Wants to Speed Journey to Mars
NASA wants to shorten the journey to Mars. It took about eight months for its Mars rover, Curiosity, to reach the red planet. And now, the US space agency is looking for ways to cut the travel time for future manned missions there. Researchers in Washington State say that might be possible through a unique […]
Science Images of the Week
Curiosity Makes Its Way to First Mars Experiment
The Mars rover Curiosity is about to undertake its first major scientific experiment on the Red Planet.Before Curiosity heads off to its primary destination, the foothills of Mount Sharp, scientists want to learn more about the terrain surrounding the rover’s landing site. The Mars mission team members are fascinated with the geology of the area, […]