Curiosity rover captures shining clouds on Mars
Cloudy days are rare in the thin, dry atmosphere of Mars. Clouds are typically found at the planet's equator in the coldest time of year, when Mars is the farthest from the Sun in its oval-shaped orbit. But one full Martian year ago—two Earth years.....»»
New AI tool captures how proteins behave in context
A fish on land still waves its fins, but the results are markedly different when that fish is in water. Attributed to renowned computer scientist Alan Kay, the analogy is used to illustrate the power of context in illuminating questions under investi.....»»
How to See the Conjunction Between Mars, Jupiter, and the Moon
On the 27th, the celestial bodies will form an unusual triangle in the sky just before dawn......»»
Research team releases a 76 m-per-pixel global color image dataset and map of Mars
Remote-sensing images of Mars contain rich information about its surface morphology, topography, and geological structure. These data are fundamental for scientific research and exploration missions of Mars. Prior to China's first Mars exploration mi.....»»
Perseverance rover gears up for a big climb to the rim of the Jezero Crater
The Perseverance rover on Mars is set to begin its newest challenge: a slog up the rim of the Jezero Crater that will take months to complete......»»
Rocks collected on Mars hold key to water and perhaps life on the planet: Researchers urge bringing them back to Earth
Over the course of nearly five months in 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected rock samples from Mars that could rewrite the history of water on the red planet and even contain evidence for past life on Mars......»»
NASA’s axed moon rover could be resurrected by Intuitive Machines
Lunar scientists were shocked when NASA announced that it was canceling work on its moon rover VIPER. Now, the mission may have the chance to go ahead......»»
Novel anemometer tracks sound travel for speedier, more precise wind speed calculations on Mars
Mars has a notoriously inhospitable environment, with temperatures that fluctuate dramatically over the course of a Martian day and average minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Its surface is mostly covered in red dust, with terrain typified by craters, cany.....»»
Mars has ‘oceans’ worth’ of water – but it’s deep underground
Researchers have identified what they believe could be oceans' worth of water on Mars. There's just one snag: it's deep underground......»»
Webb captures new image of gassy baby stars
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured a phenomenon for the very first time. The bright red streaks at top left of this June 20, 2024, image are aligned protostar outflows—jets of gas from newborn stars that all slant in the same direction......»»
Scientists find oceans of water on Mars. It"s just too deep to tap.
Using seismic activity to probe the interior of Mars, geophysicists have found evidence for a large underground reservoir of liquid water—enough to fill oceans on the planet's surface......»»
Mars and Jupiter get chummy in the night sky. The planets won"t get this close again until 2033
Mars and Jupiter are cozying up in the night sky for their closest rendezvous this decade......»»
James Webb Telescope captures gorgeous galaxy with a hungry monster at its heart
A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows off a nearby galaxy called Messier 106......»»
PrivacyLens uses thermal imaging to turn people into stick figures
"Most consumers do not think about what happens to data collected by smart home devices." Enlarge / The round lens of PrivacyLens captures standard digital video while the square lens senses heat. The heat sensor improves the cam.....»»
Ancient grains of dust from space can be found on Earth—and provide clues about the life cycle of stars
In space, there are clouds that contain gas and dust ejected from stars. Our solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago from such a molecular cloud. Most of these dust grains were destroyed during solar system formation. However, a very small amou.....»»
Here"s how Curiosity"s sky crane changed the way NASA explores Mars
Twelve years ago, NASA landed its six-wheeled science lab using a daring new technology that lowers the rover using a robotic jetpack......»»
Model suggests spewing metal nanorods into Mars" atmosphere could warm the planet by 30 K
A small team of engineers and geophysicists from Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Central Florida has found, via modeling, that creating millions of metal nanorods from material on the Martian surface and then.....»»
NASA Losing VIPER Rover Defangs the Science from Planned Moon Landings
A former space agency official argues that cutting a robotic explorer pulls the scientific teeth from the Artemis program.....»»
Take a trip to the largest lake on Mars
Mars once hosted a lake larger than any on Earth. The broken-down and dried-up remnants of this ancient lakebed are shown here in amazing detail by ESA's Mars Express......»»
Machine learning and better radar solve the "cloud cover" problem
Clouds have for decades been a bugbear for remote sensing of land surface temperature—one of the most important earth system metrics, used in everything from tracking climate change to predicting wildfires. A new approach incorporating machine lear.....»»
Relive Mars rover’s ‘7 minutes of terror’ during landing 12 years ago
NASA has marked the 12th anniversary of Curiosity's arrival on Mars with a video that relives the remarkable effort to safely land the rover on the red planet......»»