Since the arrival of Mars Global Surveyor and more recently Mars Odyssey spacecrafts, a range of facts has revealed the existence of frozen water ice in the top meters of high latitudes near-surface (~60
October 15th, 2004
Mars Reconsidered: New Data Raises Fresh Questions
here is mounting evidence of the role of water in Mars
October 15th, 2004
In the Stars: A tale of two planets Washington Times
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as the storyline begins. Shifted to a planetary context, the classic Dickens phrase also can be applied to Earth and Mars. The two worlds, created at about the same time in the history of the solar system and similar in size and composition, both started along the path to a livable environment. The findings by NASA’s twin Mars exploration rovers this year have made that assumption clear.
October 13th, 2004
Research shows liquid water may have been on Mars briefly Virginia Tech
A Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech has research published this week in Nature that shows Mars probably had liquid water at some point, but likely for only a short time, geologically speaking. NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity recently found the mineral jarosite and possibly gypsum on Mars’ surface, further adding to the speculation that water existed there in the past because those minerals “generally form in a wet environment,” according to a Nature news release.
October 13th, 2004
Study: Mars Water Didn’t Last Long Discovery.com
If water ever flowed over Mars’ surface, it was a one-night stand, say geochemists studying the properties of an unusual mineral allegedly found by the Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum.
The possible detection of a normally short-lived mineral called jarosite seems to indicate that there was liquid water on at least Meridiani Planum. But the moisture didn’t last long and hasn’t been back since.
October 13th, 2004
Canadian Bush pilots’ memorial on Mars Edmonton Journal
A lumpy boulder named after Canadian bush pilot Wop May could help solve a Martian mystery.
The Wopmay rock has the members of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Project excited. They believe it may contain clues indicating that parts of the planet were once submerged in water.
October 11th, 2004
Marsquakes: Red Planet May Still Rumble
Mars used to be a mover and a shaker. Scientists don’t know if it still entertains seismic activity, however. No mission has ever been equipped to properly measure any rattling that might still occur. Now a study comparing images of intriguing pits on Mars to similar features on Earth suggests the red planet indeed still rumbles. “It’s likely that there may be marsquakes today, but seismic monitoring will be required to know for sure,” said study leader David Ferrill of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “Until then, it’s just scientific speculation.”
October 8th, 2004
Sopping salts could reveal history of water on Mars Indiana University
Epsom-like salts believed to be common on Mars may be a major source of water there, say geologists at Indiana University Bloomington and Los Alamos National Laboratory. In their report in this week’s Nature, the scientists also speculate that the salts will provide a chemical record of water on the Red Planet.
“The Mars Odyssey orbiter recently showed that there may be as much as 10 percent water hidden in the Martian near-surface,” said David Bish, Haydn Murray Chair of Applied Clay Mineralogy at IU and a co-author of the report. “We were able to show that under Mars-like conditions, magnesium sulfate salts can contain a great deal of water. Our findings also suggest that the kinds of sulfates we find on Mars could give us a lot of insight into the history of water and mineral formation there.”
September 27th, 2004
Air Leaks from Mars via Planet’s Tail
Like a comet, Mars has a tail, a stream of particles pushed away from the planet by the Sun’s energy. New measurements of the Martian tail reveal how much air the planet loses to space every day and allow scientists to estimate the tremendous loss that may have occurred billions of years ago, making the red planet the dry and cold world it is.
September 23rd, 2004
Mars attacked by solar wind PhysicsWeb
The solar wind has a much bigger impact on Mars than previously thought according to the first results from the ASPERA-3 instrument on Mars Express. Rickard Lundin of the Swedish Institute of Space Research and an international team of co-workers have found that the solar wind — a supersonic plasma of charged particles that flows from the Sun — can penetrate deep into the atmosphere of Mars. One consequence of this is that water and other volatile molecules could escape from the planet (R Lundin et al. 2004 Science 305 1933).