Mars Archives - Page 3 of 5

Mars is Spinning Faster, Planetary Researchers Say

By News Staff August 9, 2023

To track the Red Planet’s spin rate, planetary scientists relied on the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) onboard NASA’s InSight lander. They found the planet’s rotation is accelerating by…

Auroral Mechanisms May Be Universal throughout Our Solar System

By News Staff July 18, 2023

An analysis of data obtained during the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft’s first Mercury flyby reveals that Mercury’s southern magnetosphere aurorae are similar to those seen on Earth and Mars. An artist’s…

Perseverance Finds Diverse Organic Molecules in Jezero Crater

By News Staff July 12, 2023

The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument onboard NASA’s Perseverance rover has detected several species of aromatic organic molecules in the Máaz and…

Martian Gullies Could Have Been Formed by On-And-Off Periods of Liquid Meltwater

By News Staff July 4, 2023

Some steep slopes on Mars have gullies with morphologies suggesting that they were formed by a liquid. However, the planet’s current climate is not conducive to the melting of water…

MAVEN Observes Mars in Ultraviolet Light

By News Staff June 22, 2023

Planetary scientists using the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument onboard NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft have captured two amazing images of the Red Planet. By viewing the…

Is Frying Possible in Space?

By Natali Anderson June 12, 2023

French fries are a very popular food commodity across many cultural backgrounds on Earth and as such they may be appreciated by long-term space travelers. The process of frying in…

Watch First-Ever Livestream from Mars

By News Staff June 2, 2023

On June 2, 2023, to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA’s Mars Express, you’ll have the chance to get as close as it’s currently possible get to a live view…

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Sees Fissured Flanks of Mars’ Second-Tallest Volcano

By Natali Anderson May 15, 2023

Ascraeus Mons is the northernmost and tallest of three prominent volcanoes found in the Tharsis region of Mars, a volcanic plateau in the planet’s western hemisphere. This image from ESA’s…

Genetically Modified Rice Could Actually Grow in Martian Regolith, New Study Suggests

By Enrico de Lazaro April 27, 2023

One of the biggest challenges to growing food on Mars is the presence of perchlorate salts, which have been detected in the Martian regolith (soil) and are generally considered to…

InSight Detects Seismic Waves Traveling through Martian Liquid Core

By News Staff April 25, 2023

Mars has a liquid iron alloy core at its center. Using seismic data gathered by NASA’s InSight lander, planetary scientists have made the first observations of seismic waves traveling through…