Curiosity Rover Images Sun Rays and Feather-Shaped Clouds on Mars
‘Sun rays’ are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for twilight. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. This feather-shaped…
Electricity in Martian Dust Storms Could Be Major Driving Force of Planet’s Chlorine Cycle
Frictional electrification is a common process in the Solar System, with Martian dust activities known to be a powerful source of electrical charge buildup. Furthermore, the thin atmosphere on the…
Scientists Find Various Organic Compounds in Martian Meteorite
An international team of researchers has detected abundant polyaromatic compounds, organic magnesium compounds, aliphatic branched carboxylic acids, aldehydes, and olefins in the Tissint meteorite, which landed near the city of…
Mars Express Spots Two Large Craters at Martian South Pole
A new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows an exciting landscape of layered deposits, frost, ice, and dark dunes in Ultimi…
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Records Sound of Martian Dust Devil
Dust devils — convective vortices loaded with dust — are common at the surface of Mars, particularly at Jezero crater, the landing site of NASA’s Perseverance rover. They are indicators…
Planetary Scientists Find Evidence for Active Mantle Plume on Mars
Elysium Planitia, a flat-smooth plain just north of the Martian equator, is underlain by an 4,000-km-diameter active mantle plume, according to new research by scientists from the Lunar and Planetary…
Chicxulub-Like Asteroid Caused Megatsunami on Early Mars
The Chicxulub-like asteroid crash landed in shallow ocean waters in the Martian region of Chryse Planitia 3.4 billion years ago (Hesperian period) and left a crater about 110 km wide,…
Early Martian Ocean Was Over 300 Meters Deep, New Research Suggests
An analysis of chromium isotopes in Martian meteorites suggests that approximately 4.5 billion years ago, there was enough water for the entire planet to be covered in a 300-m-deep global…
Martian Springtime Dust Storms Churn Up Surprisingly Earth-Like Cloud Patterns: Study
Using images obtained by two orbiting spacecraft, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express, planetary researchers analyzed textured dust storms that develop at the northern polar cap boundary on…
Mars Express Sees Craters and Fractures in Terra Sirenum
This new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) aboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows a diverse region southeast of the Pickering crater in Terra Sirenum, a complex cratered…