Even before marble-shaped pebbles nicknamed
June 14th, 2004
Defrosting Mars Astrobiology Magazine
Mars has an average global temperature of about minus sixty degrees Celsius (or minus 166 F). Watching seasonal changes on the red planet has been fascinating from the vantage point of a unique constellation of orbiting satellites. How will Mars change as its northern hemisphere now enters a winter cycle?
May 26th, 2004
Dust rocks martian river theory Nature
Gullies on Mars that appear to have been carved by flowing water could instead have been created by landslides of dry powdery material, scientists have found. Troy Shinbrot and colleagues of Rutgers University in New Jersey say that Mars’s smaller gravity, which is 38% weaker than Earth’s, would allow rockfalls to last longer than they do on Earth. This means landslides could cause the kind of geological features usually only associated with running water.
May 5th, 2004
How Mars got its rust Nature
Why is Mars so much rustier than the Earth? The red planet has more than twice as much iron oxide in its outer layers as our own, yet most planet scientists reckon the two bodies were formed from the same materials. David Rubie and colleagues from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, say they have an answer.
April 26th, 2004
Sibling Rivalry: A Mars/Earth Comparison
Scientific understanding is often a matter of making the right comparisons. In terms of studying the Earth, one of the best comparative laboratories exists one planet over — on Mars. In many ways, the study of Mars provides Earth-bound scientists with a control set as they look at the processes of climate change, geophysics, and the potential for life beyond our own planet.
April 20th, 2004
The Case Of The Electric Martian Dust Devils
Scientists have found clues that dust devils on Mars might have high-voltage electric fields, based on observations of their terrestrial counterpart. This research supports NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration by helping to understand what challenges the Martian environment presents to explorers, both robotic and eventually human.
April 11th, 2004
NIU scientist gets grant to study Mars Daily Herald
For the next three years, Wei Luo will have Mars in his sights. The assistant professor of geography at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb is leading an academic team that will study the networks of valleys stretching across the red planet. Luo, along with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Virginia, won a $187,000 NASA grant to study satellite images of Mars to determine what forces formed its landscape – groundwater, surface water, wind, volcanoes, gravity or impacts from asteroids.
April 7th, 2004
The cold facts about Mars SiliconValley.com
When a rover confirmed that rocks on Mars had once been steeped in water, it was easy to imagine a warmer, gentler past for the planet — one in which primitive organisms might have formed and frolicked in balmy pools of primordial soup. But that picture is misleading.
April 7th, 2004
Modern Mars: Latest Spacecraft Findings Redefine Future Missions
Mars is a wanted world — dead or alive. Scientists find themselves awash in a range of intriguing findings regarding the distinctive landscapes of the red planet. The onslaught of sensor data from trailblazing Mars orbiters — along with the ongoing Spirit and Opportunity rover missions — are setting the stage for more refined inquiries into the planet’s past and its present status.