NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed that movement in sand dune fields on the Red Planet occurs on a surprisingly large scale, about the same as in dune fields on Earth. Back-and-forth blinking of this two-image animation shows movement of a sand dune on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/JHU-APL. Click here for more…
ESA’s Mars Express has returned images of a region on the Red Planet that appears to have been sculpted in part by flowing liquid. This again adds to the growing evidence that Mars had large volumes of water on its surface in the distant past. The transition between Acidalia Planitia and Tempe Terra from the…
The latest images released from ESA’s Mars Express reveal a series of ‘pit-chains’ on the flanks of one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. Depending on their origin, they might be tempting targets in the search for microbial life on the Red Planet. Tractus Catena is shown here in a computer generated perspective…
One particular mountain on Mars, bigger than Colorado’s grandest, has been beckoning would-be explorers since it was first sighted from orbit in the 1970s. Scientists have ideas about how it took shape in the middle of ancient Gale Crater and hopes for what evidence it could yield about whether conditions on Mars have favored life….
A proposed Discovery mission concept led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to investigate the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets by studying the deep interior of Mars now has a new name, InSight. Artist rendition of the proposed InSight (Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Lander. InSight is based on…
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded a scene on Jan. 29, 2012, that includes the first color image from orbit showing the three-petal lander of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission. Spirit drove off that lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working…
New images from ESA’s Mars Express show the Syrtis Major region on Mars. Once thought to be a sea of water, the region is now known to be a volcanic province dating back billions of years. Syrtis Major, discovered in 1659 by Christaan Huygens, is a volcanic province on Mars. The image is centred on…
ESA’s Mars Express has returned strong evidence for an ocean once covering part of Mars. Using radar, it has detected sediments reminiscent of an ocean floor within the boundaries of previously identified, ancient shorelines on Mars. New results from the MARSIS radar on Mars Express give strong evidence for a former ocean of Mars. The…
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet environments on Mars. The vein is about the width of a thumb and about 18 inches long. Opportunity examined it and found it rich in…
NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the Nov. 26 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m. PST). An artist’s concept of NASA’s biggest-ever Mars rover Curiosity examining a…
NASA has launched the most capable machine, nicknamed Curiosity, ever built to land on Mars. The 1-tonne rover, tucked inside a capsule, launched from Florida on an Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 EST (15:02 GMT). The rover will take 8.5 months to fly to Mars. Mars Science Lab The landing configuration is a first. Rather…
After eight years of planning, more than $600 million in cost overruns, and a two-year delay, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory is finally ready to launch. Now you can watch the nuclear-powered, 1-ton rover — currently the largest machine that can feasibly land on the Red Planet — take off from Cape Canaveral and begin its…
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