August 26, 2008 | ![]() |
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Liquid Water in the Martian North![]() Perchlorate. Never heard of it? Join the club. But NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has found it in the soil in the icy northern plains of Mars. And now that it's been found, scientists are scrambling to explain how it got there, and what, if anything, its presence means about the habitability of the martian north. Phoenix didn't go to Mars to find perchlorate. It went looking for evidence of ... more Meteorite Fast Track ![]() For the last few years, astronomers have faced a puzzle: The vast majority of asteroids that come near the Earth are of a type that matches only a tiny fraction of the meteorites that most frequently hit our planet. Since meteorites are mostly pieces of asteroids, this discrepancy was hard to explain, but a team from MIT and other institutions has now found what it believes is the answer to the ... more Mid-Depth Soil Collected For Lab Test On NASA's Mars Lander ![]() NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has scooped up a soil sample from an intermediate depth between the ground surface and a subsurface icy layer. The sample was delivered to a laboratory oven on the spacecraft. The robotic arm on Phoenix collected the sample, dubbed "Burning Coals," from a trench named "Burn Alive 3." The sample consisted of about one-fourth to one-half teaspoon of loose soil ... more Tom Hill's TEMPO 3 Microsatellite Winner Of Mars Project Challenge ![]() After receiving the highest number of votes cast by members of the Mars Society and the endorsement of the Steering Committee, Hill's concept to launch a microsatellite that will test artificial gravity generation techniques - which will be of immense value to the crew of a six-month flight to Mars - was named the winner of the MPC Saturday evening at the 11th Annual International Mars Society ... more Dress Rehearsal For Mars ![]() Before testing for life on other planets, it's useful to practice on barren areas of the Earth. One such place is Rio Tinto in Spain, where conditions are analogous to Mars. The water of that Spanish river is very acidic, similar to water scientists think may have once flowed on the martian surface. Also, chemical studies hint that rocks on Mars' Meridiana Planum plain have been moved by ... more |
mars-phoenix
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![]() ![]() The Surface Stereo Imager, or SSI, on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has seen water frost on the ground around the spacecraft's landing site. Water frost appears in an image the SSI took on Aug. 14, 2008, at 6 a.m. local Mars time on Sol 79, the 79th Martian day after landing. The frost begins to disappear shortly after 6 a.m. as the sun rises on the landing site. The sun was about 22 ... more Martian Clays Tell Story Of A Wet Past ![]() Layers of clay-rich rock have been found in Mars' Mawrth Vallis, a potential landing site for future rovers. This work, published in the August 8 issue of Science, suggests that abundant water was once present on Mars and that hydrothermal activity may have occurred. The Mawrth Vallis outflow channel is a feature in Mars' northern highland region, a heavily cratered, ancient area of the ... more Phoenix Microscope Takes First Image Of Martian Dust Particle ![]() NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has taken the first-ever image of a single particle of Mars' ubiquitous dust, using its atomic force microscope. The particle -- shown at higher magnification than anything ever seen from another world -- is a rounded particle about one micrometer, or one millionth of a meter, across. It is a speck of the dust that cloaks Mars. Such dust particles color the Marti ... more First Test Of Welding Tool For Ares I Upper Stage ![]() NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala., engineers made the first "official" weld with tools that will enable development of the upper stage of the Ares I rocket. For this historic moment, the engineers used tools that soon will aid in manufacture of major test hardware for the Ares I rocket, slated to carry human missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar syst ... more |
exo-life
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![]() ![]() Scientists searching for life on Mars are now preparing for the most in-depth probe of the Red Planet ever undertaken. The European Space Agency's ExoMars mission will search for evidence that life may exist, investigate the Martian upper atmosphere, and analyse the physical characteristics and properties of the planet's surface and interior. With a scheduled launch date of 2013 ... more Soil Studies Continue At Site Of Phoenix Mars Lander ![]() NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has continued studies of its landing site by widening a trench, making overnight measurements of conductivity in the Martian soil and depositing a sample of surface soil into a gap between partially opened doors to an analytical oven on the lander. Phoenix's robotic arm delivered soil Thursday from a trench informally named "Rosy Red" through a narrow opening to ... more Professor Plays Vital Role In Mars Water Breakthrough ![]() NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has recently confirmed what space scientists have suspected for a long time: There is water on Mars. UT Dallas Physics Professor John Hoffman, a member of the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences, is at the center of the discovery. Hoffman's mass spectrometer is the system that analyzed gases from soil samples, the step needed to prove the existence ... more Chasing Dust Devils ![]() "It's a bit of an art - learning how to drive across dry lake beds at great speed," says Matt Balme. "And it can be quite hairy as well." During the next three years, Balme will spend a lot of time careening across playas and other open, desert areas to better understand dust devils on Mars - how much dust they lift into the atmosphere and how this affects the martian climate. Understanding ... more
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mars-phoenix
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