Mars tagged posts

Silica aerogel could warm the Martian surface similar to the way greenhouse gasses keep Earth warm. New research suggests that regions of the Martian surface could be made habitable with a material – silica aerogel – that mimics Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse effect. Through modeling and experiments, the researchers show that a 2- to 3-centimeter-thick shield of silica aerogel could transmit enough visible light for photosynthesis, block hazardous UV radiation, and raise temperatures underneath permanently above the melting point of water, all without the need for any internal heat source.

Carl Sagan was the first outside of the realm of science fiction to propose terraforming...

This complicates the picture for scientists trying to model the ancient Martian climate, said lead study author Edwin Kite, assistant professor of geophysical sciences and an expert in both the history of Mars and climates of other worlds. “It’s already hard to explain rivers or lakes based on the information we have,” he said. “This makes a difficult problem even more difficult.”

But, he said, the constraints could be useful in winnowing the many theories researchers have proposed to explain the climate.

Mars is crisscrossed with the distinctive tracks of long-dead rivers...

An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough check up since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. The mission will look for tectonic activity and meteorite impacts, study how much heat is still flowing through the planet, and track Mars’ wobble as it orbits the sun. While InSight is a Mars mission, it’s more than a Mars mission. InSight will help answer key questions about the formation of the rocky planets of the solar system.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The touchdown marks the eighth time NASA has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars. Mars has just received its newest robotic resident...

Hubble Space Telescope photo of Mars taken when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth on May 12, 2016.
Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)

Model describing conditions under which oxygenated water could exist on Mars challenges traditional beliefs about planet’s habitability. A team led by scientists at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which Caltech manages for NASA, has calculated that if liquid water exists on Mars, it could – under specific conditions – contain more oxygen than previously thought possible. According to the model, the levels could even theoretically exceed the threshold needed to support simple aerobic life.

That finding runs contrary to the current, accepted view of Mars and i...