The European Space Agency has published a new image showing a 'slice' of Mars, one that ranges from the planet's white cloud-covered north pole down through a band of pocked orange landscape to dark blue southern terrain. The image results from observations made by the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, offering a unique, colorful, and highly detailed look at the barren planet.
Southwest of Mars' Arabia Terra region lies a landmark called Danielson Crater, an impact crater that has existed on the planet for 'millions or billions' of years, according to NASA. At some point after the crater formed, sediment began to settle into the large hole in layers, slowly becoming cemented into place. Eons of formation and erosion have resulted in a striking landscape, one recently shared by NASA in a new image.
Mars is home to a dusty landscape painted with orange and brown hues, pocked with craters, and adorned with a variety of hills and mountains. Depending on where you look, Mars is also home to numerous sheer cliffs that look like long striations when captured from a distance and like near-vertical rock walls when snapped by the Martian rover. One of the latest images of these cliffs includes a clearly visible avalanche.
Scientists have been using a key tracer, isotopes of oxygen, to try and figure out how much atmosphere Mars lost. The problem they have had is that previous measurements have disagreed significantly. New observations by NASA-funded scientists have found that the amount of isotopes of oxygen vary depending on the time of day and the surface temperature of Mars.
Starting today, kindergarten through high school students located in the United States can submit essays to NASA's 'Name the Rover' contest. The space agency is soliciting name suggestions for its Mars 2020 rover, which will be launched for its mission to Mars next year. The contest will be open to students until November 1 and the final selection will be revealed early next year.
Scientists are studying Mars intently and know that in its distant past, the planet had water. The question the scientists want to answer is was the water that was present on the Red Planted frozen in ice, or was it liquid and flowing. Warm conditions would make life more likely.
NASA continues work on its Mars 2020 rover, a vehicle that will be launched on its mission to the Red Planet next summer. Ahead of that launch, the space agency says its scientists are working hard to ensure the rover is ready to land and acquire samples from the planet's surface that'll eventually be returned to Earth. A key part of that sampling system has been installed on the rover.
NASA's Curiosity rover, the machine that landed on Mars seven years ago, has sent back to Earth a series of images compiled into a bright high-resolution panorama. Prominently featured in the 360-degree image, which NASA recently shared as an interactive video, is the Red Planet's Teal Ridge surrounded by the dusty, barren Mars landscape.
NASA has shared a new video of its Mars 2020 rover, one showing off the machine's large arm and its ability to lift heavy payloads. According to the space agency, which shared the video on Friday, the robotic arm was able to lift, curl, and otherwise maneuver a sensor-filled turret that weighed 88lbs. The movement was made possible by five electrical motors working with five mechanical joints.
NASA is studying Mars from data gathered by multiple rovers and spacecraft in orbit in an attempt to determine if the Red Planet could have been home to life billions of years ago. Recent photos taken by the Curiosity Rover show a rocky and desolate landscape to most who look at them, but to scientist Christopher House the images show something else.
NASA has run into an issue on the surface of Mars with one of the instruments on the InSight probe. The instrument is part of a tool called the "Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package" but is informally known as the mole. Mole possibly hit rock shortly after deployment in March and has been sitting unable to dig since then.
The Mars 2020 rover has gained its robotic arm, with NASA fitting the SUV-sized robotic explorer with the primary tool with which it will perform experiments on the red planet. The new milestone comes shortly after the rover was shod with its six wheels for the first time, as the countdown to its 2020 launch nears.