Results tagged “Mars”

NASA has stepped closer to allowing remote onboard computers to direct the search for life on other planets.

Terrestrial planets provide Solar System insights into the evolution of accretion, core-mantle and crust-mantle differentiation, and surface processes. The Earth and Mars have equal enrichment in refractory elements (1.9 × CI), although the Earth is more volatile-depleted and less oxidized than Mars.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is just over a month from its July 20 targeted launch date. The rover's astrobiology mission will seek signs of past microscopic life on Mars, explore the geology of the Jezero Crater landing site, and demonstrate key technologies to help prepare for future robotic and human exploration.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was sent to Mars in March 2016 to search for trace gases diagnostic of active geological or biogenic processes.

There is growing evidence suggesting the presence of aqueous environment on ancient Mars, raising the question of the possibility of life in such an environment.

Mars shares many similarities and characteristics to Earth including various geological features and planetary structure. The remarkable bimodal distribution of elevations in both planets is one of the most striking global features suggesting similar geodynamic processes of crustal differentiation on Earth and Mars.

Two astronauts collected Moon rocks on Apollo 11. It will take three robotic systems working together to gather up the first Mars rock samples for return to Earth.

The Special Collection of papers in this issue of Astrobiology provide an overview of the characteristics and potential for future exploration of the Ojos del Salado volcano, located in the Andes Mountains in front of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

Several recent observations of Mars have hinted that it might presently harbor liquid water, a requirement for life as we know it. However, in a new paper in Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers have shown that stable liquids on present-day Mars are not suitable environments for known terrestrial organisms.

A Southwest Research Institute scientist modeled the atmosphere of Mars to help determine that salty pockets of water present on the Red Planet are likely not habitable by life as we know it on Earth.

A research team including research scientist Atsuko Kobayashi from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan and research scientist Mizuho Koike from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, have found nitrogen-bearing organic material in carbonate minerals in a Martian meteorite.

Explaining the evidence for surface liquid water on early Mars has been a challenge for climate modelers, as the sun was ~30% less luminous during the late-Noachian.

The presence of liquid water at the base of the Martian polar caps has long been suspected but not observed. We surveyed the Planum Australe region using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, a low-frequency radar on the Mars Express spacecraft.

In Jessica Barnes' palm is an ancient, coin-sized mosaic of glass, minerals and rocks as thick as a strand of wool fiber. It is a slice of Martian meteorite, known as Northwest Africa 7034 or Black Beauty, that was formed when a huge impact cemented together various pieces of Martian crust.

Organic compounds called thiophenes are found on Earth in coal, crude oil and oddly enough, in white truffles, the mushroom beloved by epicureans and wild pigs.

Scientists have devised new analytical tools to break down the enigmatic history of Mars' atmosphere -- and whether life was once possible there.

Briny water may form on the surface of Mars a few days per year, research by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Norbert Schorghofer shows.

Presently, Earth is the only known location where life exists in the Universe.

Mars has a thin (6 mbar) CO2 atmosphere currently. There is strong evidence for paleolakes and rivers formed by warm climates on Mars, including after 3.5 billion years (Ga) ago, which indicates that a CO2 atmosphere thick enough to permit a warm climate was present at these times.

Researchers have created the first map of wind circulation in the upper atmosphere of a planet besides Earth, using data from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft that were collected during the last two years.