Results tagged “Mars”

The ESA-led Rosalind Franklin rover has a unique potential to search for evidence of past life on Mars thanks to its drill and laboratory.

A south-facing escarpment in the northwest Hellas region that was targeted for phyllosilicates (this includes clay minerals) shows instances of bluish rock in this enhanced color image.

The ratio of nitrogen isotopes in the Martian atmosphere is a key constraint on the planet's atmospheric evolution. However, enrichment of the heavy isotope expected due to atmospheric loss from sputtering and photochemical processes is greater than measurements.

It is currently uncertain as to whether methane exists on Mars. Data from the Curiosity Rover suggests a background methane concentration of a few tenths parts per billion whereas data from the Trace Gas Orbiter suggest an upper limit of twenty parts per trillion.

It has long been known that Mars once had oceans due in part to a protective magnetic field similar to Earth's.

The surface of Mars is barren and inhospitable, but perhaps it wasn't always that way.

A few specialist microbes survive conditions analogous to those of Mars' early history, reports a new publication in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science--and this may be thanks to a broad range of adaptations.

NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, and since then has roamed Gale Crater taking samples and sending the results back home for researchers to interpret.

Organic molecules found in a meteorite that hurtled to Earth from Mars were synthesized during interactions between water and rocks that occurred on the Red Planet about 4 billion years ago, according to new analysis led by Carnegie's Andrew Steele and published by Science.

Decades of space exploration have shown that surface environments on Mars were habitable billions of years ago.

The ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted significant amounts of water at the heart of Mars' dramatic canyon system, Valles Marineris.

A clay mineral known as smectite could hold a substantial portion of the water missing from Mars, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Engineers are developing the crucial hardware needed for a series of daring space missions that will be carried out in the coming decade.

Mars exploration motivates the search for extraterrestrial life, the development of space technologies, and the design of human missions and habitations.

As part of a team of collaborators from Northern Arizona University and Johns Hopkins University, NAU PhD candidate Ari Koeppel recently discovered that water was once present in a region of Mars called Arabia Terra.

The detection of sulphur species in the Martian atmosphere would be a strong indicator of volcanic outgassing from the surface of Mars.

Mars explorers searching for signs of ancient life could be fooled by fossil-like specimens created by chemical processes, research suggests.

Organic molecules revealed in Mars's Bagnold Dunes by Curiosity's derivatization experiment, Nature Astronomy

" .. No amino-acid derivatives were detected. However, chemically derivatized benzoic acid and ammonia were detected. Mass spectra matching derivatized phosphoric acid and phenol were present, as were several nitrogen-bearing molecules and as yet unidentified high-molecular-weight compounds. ... This derivatization experiment on Mars has expanded the inventory of molecules present in Martian samples and demonstrated a powerful tool to further enable the search for polar organic molecules of biotic or prebiotic relevance."

Astrobiology is a scientific field that studies the origin,evolution, and distribution of life and habitability in the universe.

With First Martian Samples Packed, Perseverance Initiates Remarkable Sample Return Mission NASA, along with the European Space Agency, is developing a campaign to return the Martian samples to Earth.