NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured stunning images of almost perfectly round sand dunes on the surface of the Red Planet. While sand dunes of all shapes and sizes are common on Mars, circular dunes like these are a rare sight. The dunes appear as slightly asymmetrical splodges in the picture, which was taken … Read more
Scientists studying the surface of Mars recently found a piece of the rocky planet smiling back at them. In an image shared Jan. 25 by The University of Arizona (opens in new tab) (UA), what appears to be the face of an enormous Martian teddy bear — complete with two beady eyes, a button nose … Read more
NASA has revealed plans to create a nuclear-powered rocket that could send astronauts to Mars in just 45 days. The agency, which has partnered with the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design the rocket, announced on Tuesday (Jan. 24) that it could build a working nuclear thermal rocket engine as soon as … Read more
An ancient, dried-up lake bed on Mars may be teeming with opal gemstones, new data from NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover suggests. Beyond giving the cracked surface of Mars’ Gale Crater a semiprecious glint, these opals could be evidence that water and rock have been interacting beneath the Martian surface much more recently than was previously … Read more
For decades, astronomers assumed that Mars was geodynamically dead — a planet without rumbling earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. Though remnants of towering volcanoes exist on the surface of the Red Planet today, these colossal structures have been dormant for millions of years. With little to no heat firing the planet’s engine, scientists reasoned, Mars became … Read more
A towering dust storm that engulfed the Mars Perseverance rover in September 2021 was a colossal 390.4 feet (119 meters) tall, the first-ever audio recording of a dust devil on the surface of Mars reveals. The recording, an analysis of which was published Tuesday (Dec. 13) in the journal Nature Communications (opens in new tab), … Read more
A newly discovered impact crater on Mars was likely left by an enormous asteroid that slammed into the Red Planet around 3.4 billion years ago and may have triggered an 800-foot-tall “mega-tsunami.” The colossal explosion was similar to the asteroid impact on Earth that wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs, a new study shows. From about … Read more
On Dec. 24, 2021, a magnitude 4 marsquake rocked the Red Planet, triggering sensors on NASA’s Insight lander. Now, scientists know exactly what shook things up. Before and after images captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed it was a meteoroid impact –— the largest on record in the entire solar system. The impact crater, … Read more
As Elton John once sang, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids; in fact, it’s cold as hell.” But new research suggests that Martian chill could allow bacteria to survive for up to 280 million years below the planet’s surface. The finding raises hopes that traces of ancient life — or even … Read more
Ancient microbial life on Mars could have destroyed the planet’s atmosphere through climate change, which ultimately led to its extinction, new research has suggested. The new theory comes from a climate modeling study that simulated hydrogen-consuming, methane-producing microbes living on Mars roughly 3.7 billion years ago. At the time, atmospheric conditions were similar to those … Read more
