A desert moss could be the key to terraforming Mars, according to a recent study published by Chinese scientists. Due to its extraordinary resilience, Syntrichia caninervis (S. caninervis), a moss found in extreme desert environments from Tibet to Antarctica, has been touted a “pioneer plant” for establishing a livable environment on Mars. Basically, scientists believe […]
July 2 (UPI) — The first volunteer crew, to live for more than a year inside NASA’s Mars habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, will exit the simulated Red Planet ground mission on Saturday. Crew members Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones will be greeted with a short welcome ceremony […]
Meteorite impacts pepper Mars at a rate up to 10 times more frequent than previous estimates, according to two new research papers that identified the seismic shock waves of these impacts detected by NASA’s now-defunct Mars InSight lander. The new rate is staggering. According to the findings, between 180 and 260 impacts per year occur […]
A key Perseverance rover instrument has been revived to continue its search for evidence of microbial life on Mars. The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument mounted on Perseverance’s robotic arm had been out of action for around six months, due to a moveable protective lens cover not […]
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Hundreds of basketball-size space rocks slam into Mars each year, leaving behind impact craters and causing rumblings across the red planet, according to new research. Mission planners could use the revelations, recorded in data collected by […]
Scientists are interested in more than just the rocks NASA’s Perseverance rover has cached throughout its trek across Mars. They want the air, too. Since landing on Mars in 2021, Perseverance has collected 24 samples of Martian rock and dust, also known as regolith. These rock cores are believed to hold insight about the planet’s […]
Last week, after braving a field of sand dunes and traversing the desiccated remnants of an ancient river, NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the shining rock outcropping on the Martian horizon that the rover’s operators have named “Bright Angel.” Perseverance has now begun its scientific investigation of a very unique place in its surroundings. Its first […]
On June 22, 2000, NASA announced possible evidence of present-day liquid water on Mars. Scientists analyzed data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and found what appeared to be gullies formed by flowing water. They also found debris and mud deposits these flows may have left behind. Spacecraft on and around the planet had already […]
Mars was likely, very long ago, blue from oceans of water that covered its surface. But the now-red world may still hold liquid water underground, stowed deep and out of sight. If there is water down there, how would we find it? A few scientists believe that they have an answer: marsquakes. When the seismic […]
Nasa’s Perseverance Mars rover has discovered a never-before-seen light-toned boulder in a field of dark rocks, a finding that sheds new light on the Red Planet’s geology. The rover encountered the rock as it traversed Neretva Vallis, a region thought to contain evidence of an ancient river that existed billions of years ago. Perseverance had […]
Stark Contrast NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a shortcut to steer clear of a path riddled with boulders — and stumbled into a field full of stones the likes of which scientists have never seen before on the Red Planet. On its fourth campaign since landing three years ago, the tireless rover roamed its way […]
Since January, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been tracing the south side of Neretva Vallis, which is possibly the fossil of a river that once fed the rover’s landing site in Jezero Crater. In the distance, Perseverance’s operators could see the glimmer of its next destination: Bright Angel, so named for the light-toned outcrops that may […]