water tagged posts

Hubble took this photo of Mars when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth, during its last opposition in 2016. The photo reveals details as small as 20 to 30 miles across. Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)

Webb will investigate how Mars went from wet to dry. Mars rovers and orbiters have found signs that Mars once hosted liquid water on its surface. Much of that water escaped over time. How much water was lost, and how does the water that’s left move from ice to atmosphere to soil? During its first year of operations, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will seek answers. Webb also will study mysterious methane plumes that hint at possible geological or even biological activity.

Mars will be targeted as pa...

This artist’s impression shows several of the planets orbiting the ultra-cool red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. New observations, when combined with very sophisticated analysis, have now yielded good estimates of the densities of all seven of the Earth-sized planets and suggest that they are rich in volatile materials, probably water. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

A new study has found that planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 are made mostly of rock, and some could hold more H2O than Earth. The planets’ densities suggest that some of them could have up to 5% of their mass in the form of water. The hotter planets closest to their parent star are likely to have dense steamy atmospheres and the more distant ones probably have icy surfaces...

Complementary logic circuit Photo credit: Thor Balkhed

Complementary logic circuits based on high-performance n-type organic electrochemical transistor. Researchers at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, have developed the world’s first complementary electrochemical logic circuits that can function stably for long periods in water. This is a highly significant breakthrough in the development of bioelectronics.

The first printable organic electrochemical transistors were presented by researchers at LiU as early as 2002, and research since then has progressed rapidly. Several organic electronic components, such as light-emitting diodes and electrochromic displays, are already commercially available.

The dominating material used until now has been PEDOT:PSS, which is...

This is image shows modern Mars (left) dry and barren, compared with the same scene over 3.5 billion years ago covered in water (right). The rocks of the surface were slowly reacting with the water, sequestering it into the Martian mantle leading to the dry, inhospitable scene shown on the left.
Credit: Jon Wade

Water on Mars absorbed like a sponge, new research suggests. 2 new articles have shed light on why there is, presumably, no life on Mars.  IAlthough today’s Martian surface is barren, frozen and uninhabitable, a trail of evidence points to a once warmer, wetter planet, where water flowed freely – and life may have thrived. The conundrum of what happened to this water is long standing and unsolved. However, new research suggests that this water is now locked in the Martian rocks.

Sc...