Mars | SpaceRef - Mars Today

Mars TOP STORY

River Relic Spied By Mars Express

Nirgal Vallis

Mars may seem to be an alien world, but many of its features look eerily familiar - such as this ancient, dried-up river system that stretches out for nearly 700 kilometres across the surface, making it one of the longest valley networks on the planet.

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Mars TOP STORIES

Global Analysis Of Submarine Canyons On Earth May Shed Light On Martian Landscapes

Mars Imaged by Hubble

Submarine canyons are a final frontier on planet Earth.

Mars 2020 Rover Tests Descent-Stage Separation

In this picture from Sept. 28, 2019, engineers and technicians working on the assembly and testing of the Mars 2020 spacecraft look on as a crane lifts the rocket-powered descent stage away from the rover.

NASA's Push to Save the Mars InSight Lander's Heat Probe

NASA's InSight lander, which is on a mission to explore the deep interior of Mars, positioned its robotic arm this past weekend to assist the spacecraft's self-hammering heat probe. Known as "the mole," the probe has been unable to dig more than about 14 inches (35 centimeters) since it began burying itself into the ground on Feb. 28, 2019.

NASA's InSight 'Hears' Peculiar Sounds on Mars

Put an ear to the ground on Mars and you'll be rewarded with a symphony of sounds. Granted, you'll need superhuman hearing, but NASA's InSight lander comes equipped with a very special "ear."

Sols 2536-2537: Mars Curiosity's SAM Wet Chemistry Experiment

Searching for organic molecules in rocks on Mars is no easy task. Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument is designed to analyze the chemical composition of gases, which it creates by slowly heating rock samples in an oven.

Getting Mac And Cheese To Mars

Washington State University scientists have developed a way to triple the shelf life of ready-to-eat macaroni and cheese, a development that could have benefits for everything from space travel to military use.

Drones Probe Dust Devils to Understand Mars's Atmosphere

Dust devils, small dusty whirlwinds, have been studied for decades. But, says Brian Jackson, an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Boise State University, the ability of dust devils to lift dust into the atmosphere remains murky.

Layers in Mars' Danielson Crater

This image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft shows sedimentary rock and sand within Danielson Crater, an impact crater about 42 miles or 67 kilometers in diameter, located in the southwest Arabia Terra region of Mars.

Defrosting Dunes On Mars

This captivating image was taken in the north polar region of Mars by the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter's CaSSIS camera.

Mars 2020 Rover Spun Up For Center Of Gravity Determination

Engineers took NASA's Mars 2020 for a spin on Aug. 29, 2019. The 2,300-pound (1,040-kilogram) Martian vehicle was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise at about 1 revolution per minute on what is called a spin table in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Avalanche Season On Mars

Every spring the sun shines on the side of the stack of layers at the North Pole of Mars known as the north polar layered deposits. The warmth destabilizes the ice and blocks break loose.

The Formation Of The Martian Moons

Almost all the planets of our solar system have moons. Each planetary system has however unique characteristics.

New Insight Into How Much Atmosphere Mars Lost

A key tracer used to estimate how much atmosphere Mars lost can change depending on the time of day and the surface temperature on the Red Planet, according to new observations by NASA-funded scientists.

Mars Helicopter Attached to Mars 2020 Rover

Engineers attached NASA's Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover today in the High Bay 1 clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Scientists Explore Australia's Outback As A Testbed for Mars

This week, scientists from NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 mission joined their counterparts from the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission in an expedition to the Australian Outback, one of the most remote, arid regions on the planet

All Instruments Installed Onboard The Rosalind Franklin Rover

The full suite of scientific instruments, including cameras that will give us our eyes on Mars, the drill that will retrieve pristine soil samples from below the surface, and the onboard laboratory that will seek out signs of life are all installed on the ExoMars rover.

A Step Closer to Solving the Methane Mystery on Mars

Scientists have taken an important step towards revealing the mysterious source of methane on Mars, by refining estimates of the gas in the planet's atmosphere.