Mars tagged posts

Organic molecules of unprecedented size discovered on Mars

mars
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The longest organic molecules identified to date on Mars have recently been detected by scientists from the CNRS, together with their colleagues from France, the U.S., Mexico, and Spain. These long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive carbon atoms, could exhibit features similar to the fatty acids produced on Earth by biological activity.

The lack of geological activity and the cold, arid climate on Mars have helped preserve this invaluable organic matter in a clay-rich sample for the past 3.7 billion years. It therefore dates from the period during which life first emerged on Earth. These findings are due to be published on March 24, 2025, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovery was made using SAM, one of the inst...

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The chances of anything coming from Mars

Microscope images of rock samples and a bar chart showing signals from them.
Mars analogues. Photos and outputs from instruments used for O-PTIR. Researchers can interpret the images on the left, made using different optical sensors, to produce graphs like those on the right, which show the presence of microbial life. ©2025 Suzuki et al. CC-BY-ND

New method to detect life makes Mars sample return protocols rock solid

Within the next decade, space agencies plan to bring samples of rock from Mars to Earth for study. Of concern is the possibility these samples contain life, which could have unforeseen consequences. Therefore, researchers in this field strive to create methods to detect life...

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Adsorptive regolith on Mars soaks up water, updated model shows

Adsorptive Regolith on Mars Soaks Up Water, Researchers Reveal

Mars, the next frontier in space exploration, still poses many questions for scientists. The planet was once more hospitable, characterized by a warm and wet climate with liquid oceans. But today Mars is cold and dry, with most water now located below the surface. Understanding how much water is stored offers critical information for energy exploration, as well as life sustainability on the planet.

A research group from Tohoku University has helped shed light on this by improving an existing Mars climate model. The enhanced model accommodates the various properties of Martian regolith, or the loose deposits of solid rock that comprise Martian soil. The study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

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Mars’s Rare Disappearing Solar Wind Event explained

Mars's rare disappearing solar wind event explained
Illustration of Martian ionosphere and magnetosphere pre-, during and post-disappearing solar wind event. Credit: Ram et al., 2024.

Mars’s atmosphere and climate are impacted by interactions with solar wind, a stream of plasma comprised of protons and electrons that flows from the sun’s outermost atmosphere (corona), traveling at speeds of 400–1,000 kilometers per second.

As these charged particles interact with the planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere, we may see spectacular auroras over polar regions on Earth. Given Mars’s lack of a global magnetic field, auroras here are instead diffused across the planet.

However, sometimes this solar wind can “disappear” in rare events when there is a gap in the solar wind path as the sun increases its solar activity...

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