NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has begun its search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. Flexing its 7-foot (2-meter) mechanical arm, the rover is testing the sensitive detectors it carries, capturing their first ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 20, 2021
3
988
NASA's newest six-wheeled robot on Mars, the Perseverance rover, is beginning an epic journey across a crater floor seeking signs of ancient life. That means the rover team is deeply engaged with planning navigation routes, ...
Space Exploration
Jul 2, 2021
1
17
A team of researchers from Spain, France and the U.S. has found evidence of a glauconitic-like clay on Mars that suggests the planet once had habitable conditions. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, ...
Floods of unimaginable magnitude once washed through Gale Crater on Mars' equator around 4 billion years ago—a finding that hints at the possibility that life may have existed there, according to data collected by NASA's ...
Space Exploration
Nov 20, 2020
8
2132
By studying the chemical elements on Mars today—including carbon and oxygen—scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had the conditions necessary to support life.
Astronomy
May 19, 2020
7
1952
Nature is a powerful sculptor—as shown in this image from ESA's Mars Express, which portrays a heavily scarred, fractured Martian landscape. This terrain was formed by intense and prolonged forces that acted upon Mars' ...
Space Exploration
May 15, 2020
1
13
Undulating streaks of land visible from space reveal rivers once coursed across the Martian surface—but for how long did the water flow? Enough time to record evidence of ancient life, according to a new Stanford study.
Space Exploration
Apr 23, 2020
10
846
It will be one of the most daunting, complicated and, potentially, scientifically rewarding missions ever undertaken to the red planet. Ministers at a recent meeting of the European Space Agency (ESA) have fully committed ...
Space Exploration
Dec 5, 2019
2
246
In June, NASA's Curiosity rover reported the highest burst of methane recorded yet, but neither ESA's Mars Express nor the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter recorded any signs of the illusive gas, despite flying over the same location ...
Space Exploration
Nov 13, 2019
0
16
A new study reveals asteroid impacts on ancient Mars could have produced key ingredients for life if the Martian atmosphere was rich in hydrogen. An early hydrogen-rich atmosphere on Mars could also explain how the planet ...
Space Exploration
Mar 26, 2019
1
90
