A new analysis of decades-old data from NASA’s Spirit rover has uncovered overlooked traces of crystalline hematite and altered magnetite, adding to growing evidence that liquid water once played a major role in shaping the Red Planet.
As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across. The mission has spotted small patches of these geometric shapes several times […]
Tune in today, July 24, at 1:30 p.m. ET for a LIVE This Week In Space taping to mark the 50th anniversary of the Viking landings on Mars.
NASA MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission scientists have uncovered a key puzzle piece in understanding certain types of auroras on Mars, finding that they form in a similar way to Earth-based auroras. Results published Thursday in Nature Communications show the same mechanism that circulates and catapults charged particles into Earth’s atmosphere is happening at […]
What might seem like a simple black-and-white picture of some rocks is actually the first photograph ever taken on the surface of Mars.
“We didn’t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche’s unique perspective.”
Background Human exploration of Mars will expose crews to a persistent, fine particulate environment whose physicochemical properties and health implications remain only partly understood. Because no samples of authentic Martian airborne dust have been returned to Earth, NASA must rely on lunar dust toxicology, Martian regolith simulants, and extensive rover/lander geochemical and mineralogical datasets to […]
NASA’s Viking 1 mission blazed a crucial trail with its Mars landing on July 20, 1976. Now, half a century later, that trail leads up into the Red Planet’s skies.
Remnants from Martian history stay scattered across the planet’s surface.
Did Viking 1 find evidence of life on Mars? Fifty years after the NASA lander touched down, the jury is still out.