Paris, France (SPX) Jan 17, 2008 - Until now, Mars has generally been regarded as a desert world, where a visiting astronaut would be surprised to see clouds scudding across the orange sky. However, new results show that the arid planet possesses high-level clouds that are sufficiently dense to cast a shadow on the surface.
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Jan 16, 2008 - U.S. scientists have obtained high-resolution images of Mars' wind-driven sand dunes and ridges that might lead to a better understanding of the planet.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 10, 2008 - Since our last update, we have received numerous tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 from four different observatories. These new data have led to a significant reduction in the position uncertainties during the asteroid's close approach to Mars on Jan. 30, 2008. As a result, the impact probability has dropped dramatically, to approximately 0.01% or 1 in 10,000 odds, effectively ruling out the possible collision with Mars.
Moscow (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - Russia is leading the race to complete a manned mission to Mars and could land a Russian on the Red Planet by 2025, a leading scientist was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 04, 2008 - NASA'S Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Sprit spent the closing months of 2007. After several months near the base of the plateau called Home Plate in the inner basin of the Columbia Hills range inside Gusev Crater, Spirit climbed onto the eastern edge of the plateau during the rover's 1,306th Martian day, or sol, (Sept. 5, 2007).
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Jan 3, 2008 - The unmanned rovers Spirit and Opportunity are showing serious signs of wear after an astounding five years roaming Mars, U.S. space agency officials say.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 03, 2008 - Additional position observations for asteroid 2007 WD5 taken on December 29 through January 2 have been used to improve the accuracy of the asteroid's orbit.
Cornell NY (SPX) Dec 31, 2007 - Inch by power-conserving inch, drivers on Earth have moved the Mars rover Spirit to a spot where it has its best chance at surviving a third Martian winter -- and where it will celebrate its fourth anniversary (in Earth years) since bouncing down on Mars for a projected 90-day mission in January 2004.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - Astronomers funded by NASA are monitoring the trajectory of an asteroid estimated to be 50 meters (164 feet) wide that is expected to cross Mars' orbital path early next year. Observations provided by the astronomers and analyzed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., indicate the object may pass within 30,000 miles of Mars at about 6 a.m. EST (3 a.m. PST) on Jan. 30, 2008.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - An asteroid discovered by The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey has a one-in-75 chance of hitting Mars Jan. 30, scientists tracking it say. Catalina Sky Survey team member Andrea Boattini discovered the asteroid, designated 2007 WD5, with UA's Mount Lemmon 60-inch telescope in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson on Nov. 20.
Laurel, MD (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - Scientists are getting a clearer image of mineral distribution on the surface of Mars, thanks to the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, currently circling the planet. More than 200 just-released spectral maps reveal the distribution of various minerals on the surface of Mars -- the first installment of the Global Mars Map, which will eventually cover the entire planet.
Cambridge MA (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - Planetary scientists have puzzled for years over an apparent contradiction on Mars. Abundant evidence points to an early warm, wet climate on the red planet, but there's no sign of the widespread carbonate rocks, such as limestone, that should have formed in such a climate. Now, a detailed analysis in the Dec. 21 issue of Science by MIT's Maria T. Zuber and Itay Halevy and Daniel P. Schrag of Harvard University provides a possible answer to the mystery.
Columbus OH (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - Scientists have gathered more evidence that suggests flowing water on Mars -- by comparing images of the red planet to an otherworldly landscape on Earth. In recent years, scientists have examined images of several sites on Mars where water appears to have flowed to the surface and left behind a trail of sediment. Those sites closely resemble places where water flows today in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, the new study has found.
Cambridge, MA (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - Harvard University Sulfur dioxide (SO2) may have played a key role in the climate and geochemistry of early Mars, geoscientists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggest in the Dec. 21 issue of the journal Science. Their hypothesis may resolve longstanding questions about evidence that the climate of the Red Planet was once much warmer than it is today.
Washington DC (SPX) Dec 24, 2007 - NASA has decided that the next mission in the Mars Scout program, originally planned for launch in 2011, is now targeted for launch in 2013. The schedule slip is because of an organizational conflict of interest that was discovered in one of the mission proposal team's Phase A Concept Study. This was the shortest delay for the mission possible because opportunities to send spacecraft to Mars occur only once every 26 months.
ESA, NASA and an international team are developing plans and seeking recommendations to launch the first Mars mission to bring soil samples back to Earth.
