Tucson AZ (SPX) Mar 07, 2008 - Scientists studying images from The University of Arizona-led High Resolution Imaging Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have discovered never-before-seen impact megabreccia and a possibly once-habitable ancient lake on Mars at a place called Holden crater.
Paris, France (ESA) Mar 06, 2008 - Using two ESA spacecraft, planetary scientists are watching the atmospheres of Mars and Venus being stripped away into space. The simultaneous observations by Mars Express and Venus Express give scientists the data they need to investigate the evolution of the two planets' atmospheres.
by Jean-Louis Santini - Washington DC (AFP) Jun 27, 2008 Martian dirt is apparently good enough for asparagus to grow in, NASA scientists said Thursday, as they announced the results of a soil analysis collected by the US Phoenix Mars lander.
Marshalltown IA (SPX) Mar 06, 2008 - Mechdyne has announced that it has installed an immersive CAVE display system as the focal point of the new Fossett Laboratory for Virtual Planetary Exploration at Washington University St. Louis (WUSTL). As a teaching and research facility of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the Laboratory will provide 3D imaging capability for visualization of data collected by national and international space exploration programs.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 05, 2008 - Spirit has achieved a northerly tilt of 29.9 degrees! As a result, based on power projections, Spirit has a fighting chance of surviving another winter on Mars, if the weather and environment cooperate.
Tuscon AZ (SPX) Mar 04, 2008 - Liquid water has not been found on the Martian surface within the last decade after all, according to new research. The finding casts doubt on the 2006 report that the bright spots in some Martian gullies indicate that liquid water flowed down those gullies sometime since 1999. It rules out pure liquid water, said lead author Jon D. Pelletier of The University of Arizona in Tucson.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 04, 2008 - A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet's north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. It is one of approximately 2,400 HiRISE images being released today.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Mar 04, 2008 - I admit I never actually wrote this goal into my grant, UC Berkeley Professor of Chemistry Richard Mathies told me, as one of his graduate students injected a drop of Zinfandel into Mathies's organic analyzer. But it is an important demonstration that the detector actually works.
Tucson (UPI) Mar 03, 2008 - A U.S. scientist said high resolution images raise doubt that liquid water has been found on the surface of Mars.
Paris, France (ESA) Feb 29, 2008 - A trio of NASA and ESA spacecraft orbiting Mars are preparing for the 25 May arrival of NASA's Phoenix lander. ESA's Mars Express has already started adjusting its orbit to provide critical back-up monitoring of Phoenix.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 29, 2008 - After recovering from a stall in Joint 1, which controls the compass orientation of the shoulder on the rover's robotic arm, Opportunity is proceeding carefully to its next target, an exposure of layered rocks known as Gilbert. Opportunity ran the usual diagnostic tests for this sort of fault, which occurred while the rover was studying a rock target known as Buckland, and successfully placed the Moessbauer spectrometer on the target on Sol 1437 (Feb. 8, 2008).
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 27, 2008 - Modelling of the Earth's atmosphere has acquired economic importance due to its use in the prediction of ozone depletion and in measuring the impact of global warming. Now, researchers, writing in the online open access journal PMC Physics B have found that the rate at which electrons lose energy to carbon monoxide is greater than that to carbon dioxide at higher levels in the atmospheres of both Mars and Venus.
Boston MA (SPX) Feb 27, 2008 - Last week, two MIT students began living, working and communicating with the outside world as if they were on a mission to Mars. Whenever they go outside their small, round habitat where eight people are spending a two-week mission, they don spacesuits and pass through an airlock.
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Feb 22, 2008 - Researchers from the United States and the Netherlands report that several formations on Mars indicate incidents of rapid release of water from the planet's interior. Mars has many basins that contain formations that look like fans. A few of these fans, only about 10, have steps down into the basin.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 20, 2008 - Spirit is tiptoeing ever so carefully down the north edge of the elevated volcanic plateau known as Home Plate. Having completed a 4-centimeter (1.6-inch) drive on sol 1463 (Feb. 13, 2008), the rover's current northerly tilt is 27.1 degrees. Spirit's handlers plan to have the rover drive another 4 centimeters on sol 1464 (Feb. 14, 2008).
Paris (AFP) Feb 20, 2008 - Fan-shaped deltas at the edge of huge basins scattered across Mars were probably formed by a titanic influx of water, gushing from the bowels of the Red Planet, according to study released Wednesday.
