MARS - SKY NIGHTLY

Dec 16, 2020 (XNA)

The administration said in a statement on Tuesday morning that the spacecraft had been in good condition. By 9 pm on Monday, the robotic probe had flown 144 day...

Powerful electrical events quickly alter surface chemistry on Mars

Dec 16, 2020 (SPX)

On Earth, dust particles are viewed mainly in terms of their physical effects, like erosion. But, in exotic locales from Mars to Venus to Jupiter's icy moon Eur...

From NASA JPL's Mailroom to Mars and Beyond

Dec 15, 2020 (JPL)

Allen was just 17 years old when he first set foot on the grounds of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to join the mailroom in the summer of 1981. Voyager had re...

Ice-Rich flow features in Martian southern hemisphere reveal effects of recent climate cycles

Dec 15, 2020 (SPX)

"Our radar analysis shows that at least one of these features is about 500 meters thick and nearly 100 percent ice, with a debris covering at most ten meters th...

Water on Mars not as widespread as previously thought, study finds

Dec 11, 2020 (SPX)

Researchers combined data on brine evaporation rates, collected through experiments at the center's Mars simulation chamber, with a global weather circulation m...

Five hidden gems are riding aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars 2020 rover

Dec 09, 2020 (JPL)

The "extras" are part of a tradition that harks back to the early space age and is now called "festooning" in NASA lingo. A plaque aboard Pioneer 10 and 11 disp...

Biomining study could unlock future settlements on other worlds

Dec 07, 2020 (SPX)

The BioAsteroid experiment will take up match-box sized containers carrying asteroid rock, that will then be used to grow bacteria and fungi in an incubator for...

Best region for life on Mars was far below surface

Dec 03, 2020 (SPX)

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, may help resolve what's known as the faint young sun paradox - a lingering key question in Mars science. "...

New tech can get oxygen, fuel from Mars's salty water

Dec 01, 2020 (SPX)

There's water on Mars. The Red Planet is very cold; water that isn't frozen is almost certainly full of salt from the Martian soil, which lowers its freezing te...

Laboratory experiments unravelling the mystery of the Mars moon Phobos

Dec 01, 2020 (SPX)

The Martian moon Phobos is affected by a special situation: it is so close to Mars that not only the solar wind but also the irradiation by particles from Mars ...

Cyprus rocky testing ground for Mars

Nov 27, 2020 (AFP)

Planetologists and geologists arrived in Cyprus earlier this month to test out the equipment in the Troodos mountains, which officials say has geological simila...

ESA and Auroch Digital launch Mars Horizon game

Nov 27, 2020 (ESA)

That's the premise of Mars Horizon, a new strategy game from UK company Auroch Digital, created with help from ESA and designed to show the gaming community all...

UK-built rover landing on Martian surface moves one giant fall closer

Nov 27, 2020 (SPX)

Once the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover reaches Mars, a dramatic 6-minute sequence will see a 'descent module' - carrying the rover...

MOXIE could help future rockets launch off Mars

Nov 25, 2020 (JPL)

That's a lot of propellant. But instead of shipping all that oxygen, what if the crew could make it out of thin (Martian) air? A first-generation oxygen generat...

Field geology at Mars' equator points to ancient megaflood

Nov 22, 2020 (SPX)

The research, "Deposits from Giant Floods in Gale Crater and Their Implications for the Climate of Early Mars," was published Nov. 5 in Nature Scientific Report...

Creating chaos: Craters and collapse on Mars

Nov 22, 2020 (ESA)

This slice of Mars, seen here as imaged by Mars Express' High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), shows signs of various intriguing processes. A scattering of impa...

Hear audio from Perseverance as it travels through deep space

Nov 19, 2020 (JPL)

Data for the 60-second audio file was collected on Oct. 19 during an in-flight checkout of the camera and microphone system that will pick up some of the landin...

ExoMars parachute testing moves forward

Nov 19, 2020 (ESA)

"Landing on Mars is extremely difficult, with no room for error," says ExoMars Programme Team Leader Francois Spoto. "The latest test was a good step forward bu...

'Conscientiousness' key to team success during space missions

Nov 19, 2020 (SPX)

To help ensure that doesn't happen, a new study led by Western University tested team dynamics of five astronauts during an analog Mars mission staged by the Au...

Ancient zircon minerals from Mars reveal the elusive internal structure of the red planet

Nov 18, 2020 (SPX)

"We were quite surprised and excited when we found so many zircons in this martian meteorite. Zircon are incredible durable crystals that can be dated and prese...