Ground-penetrating radar from China’s Martian rover Zhurong reveals shallow impact craters and other geologic structures in the top five meters of the red planet’s surface.
In the ongoing search for signs of life on Mars, a new study proposes focusing on “time-resolved analogs” – dynamic and similar Earth environments where changes can be analyzed over many years.
Mars is a dusty planet. From tiny dust devils to vast storms that shroud the planet, dust is a constant challenge for research missions.
The Martian meteorite Tissint contains a huge diversity of organic compounds, found an international team of researchers led by Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich’s Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin and including Carnegie’s Andrew Steele.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily formed without atmospheric oxygen. The study from the laboratory of Jeffrey Catalano in Arts & Sciences was published Dec. 22 in Nature Geoscience.
When the rover Perseverance landed on Mars, it was equipped with the first working microphone on the planet’s surface. Scientists have used it to make the first-ever audio recording of an extraterrestrial whirlwind.
The biochemical process by which cyanobacteria acquire nutrients from rocks in Chile’s Atacama Desert has inspired engineers at the University of California, Irvine to think of new ways microbes might help humans build colonies on the moon and Mars.
Louis Urtecho and his team hope to study dust devils in the Mojave Desert on Earth, then extend the analysis to scale for the different atmosphere on Mars. Based on microbarometer data from the Mojave, they built an algorithm to look for the pressure activity indicative of a dust devil. The vortices have a distinct drop in pressure near their centers, and their pressure fluctuates to look like an electrocardiogram signal over time. The team hopes to learn more about the convective vortices and how they move, which will improve the accuracy of Martian weather models.
In Physics of Fluids, researchers have been studying the dynamics of how crescent-shaped sand dunes are formed. Known as barchans, these formations are commonly found in various sizes and circumstances, on Earth and on Mars. Using a computational fluid dynamics approach, the team carried out simulations by applying the equations of motion to each grain in a pile being deformed by a fluid flow, showing the ranges of values for the proper computation of barchan dunes down to the grain scale.
A Martian megatsunami may have been caused by an asteroid collision similar to the Chicxulub impact – which contributed to the mass extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs on Earth 66 million years ago – in a shallow ocean region, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.
In two connected studies, cave ecologist Jut Wynne, along with dozens of co-authors including engineers, astrophysicists, astrobiologists and astronauts, lay out the research that needs to be done to get us closer to answering the old-age question about life beyond Earth.
If in fact there is or has been life on Mars, it would likely still be there today, billions of years later, according to a new study published Oct. 25 in Astrobiology led by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU).
A team of UNLV scientists is already researching how we can support extended space travel with oxygen and food needs for people.
Cornell astronomers believe bright reflections beneath the surface of Mars’ South Pole are not necessarily evidence of liquid water, but instead geological layers.
An international team of researchers with NASA’s InSight mission located four new craters created by impacts on the surface of Mars.
A little Martian dust appears to go a long way. A small amount of simulated crushed Martian rock mixed with a titanium alloy made a stronger, high-performance material in a 3D-printing process that could one day be used on Mars to make tools or rocket parts.
On the red and dusty surface of Mars, nearly 100 million miles from Earth, an instrument the size of a lunchbox is proving it can reliably do the work of a small tree.
The accepted view of Mars is red rocks and craters as far as the eye can see.
In its first year exploring Jezero Crater on Mars, the Perseverance rover collected rock samples that scientists anticipate will provide a long-awaited timeline for the planet’s geologic and water history.
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