NASA held a press conference this morning to announce a major discovery regarding the presence of liquid water flowing on the surface of Mars “under certain conditions.” Here is the complete press release from NASA.gov: “New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day […]
Wet Mars : Credits: NASA/GSFC The journal Nature Communications has published a paper detailing research into comparatively recent water flow on Mars. Abstract: “Liquid water is currently extremely rare on Mars, but was more abundant during periods of high obliquity in the last few millions of years. This is testified by the widespread occurrence of mid-latitude […]
According to Reuters, new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letter indicates that while Mars may have lost up to 87% of the water it once possessed, there is still an enormous amount of water ice to be found on the Red Planet. In addition to the known deposits found at Mars’ polar caps, […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS NASA held a teleconference on Tuesday to discuss the latest results from the Curiosity rover’s journey up the slopes of Mount Sharp in Mars’s Gale Crater. The findings, outlined in the NASA news story below, are quite significant. Mars was apparently warmer and wetter for much longer than many had thought, and […]
Artists Conception : Credit Rob Gizis, CUNY BMCC An astronomer at Penn State University appears to discovered the first ever direct evidence of water ice clouds on another world. That world is WISE J0855-0714, an enigmatic brown dwarf of “failed star” located only 7.3 light years from Earth. The discovery was made using images from […]
SpaceX released the following video of the first stage return on the July 14 Orbcomm mission. Early front runner for best short film of the year. SpaceX Description Published on Jul 22, 2014 Video of the Falcon 9 first stage reentry and landing following successful delivery of six ORBCOMM satellites to orbit. This test […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ While the flashy new Curiosity rover is celebrating the completion of its first full Martian year, the much smaller but remarkably resilient Opportunity rover is still going strong in its 10th (Earth) year on Mars. And as JPL reports, perched on the rim of the Endeavour crater and scoured […]
Mars Gully Before From NASA: A comparison of images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in November 2010 and May 2013 reveal the formation of a new gully channel on a crater-wall slope in the southern highlands of Mars. These before-and-after images are available […]
NASA reported today on an intriguing line of inquiry in the hunt for evidence of liquid water running on the surface of Mars. Once thought to out of the question, recent years have seen a number of images which strongly suggest the presence of seasonal water flows of what is speculated as a very salty […]
Is the inner solar system one big swimming hole? The discovery of what is by all appearances is a dry stream bed on Mars by the Curiosity rover this week adds to a growing body of evidence that sometime in the distant past, at least portions of the Red Planet once more closely resembled our own blue marble, somewhat inappropriately […]
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