Martian rover Perseverance confirms that it’s sitting on an ancient lake bed, an ideal location to look for signs of life. Continue reading Perseverance finds direct evidence of ancient lake bed on Mars
Temperature studies of rocks on Mars reveal water was briefly present in a part called Arabia Terra. Continue reading Arabia Terra on Mars Once Had Water — But Only Briefly
by Wei Lifigures by Catherine Ding The universe is massive, with an estimated 70 quintillion planets—that is 70 followed by an additional 18 zeros. In the Milky Way alone, where we reside, there are billions of planets. With these huge numbers, Earth seems very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This raises the question: are we truly alone in this vast space of the … Continue reading Finding Life in Space: Why are we so special?
Scientists have discovered four lakes buried under the icy surface of the red planet. Could they lead us to biological life? Continue reading Underground Lakes Discovered on Martian Polar Cap
Scientists have recently shaken up our perception of Mars. A NASA team has directly shown that Mars is seismically active – much more than scientists expected, too. Continue reading NASA has Detected Marsquakes, Proving the Red Planet is Seismically Active
Curiosity rover’s analysis of rocks on Mars suggests that ancient water on the red planet would have been suitable for supporting life. Continue reading Water on Mars Was Similar To Water on Earth
by Andrew Greenspon figures by Hannah Zucker Picture yourself as the Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars in 2012. You’ve just arrived on Mars after an eight-month journey from Earth. You begin traveling across the Gale crater toward Mount Sharp, 18,000 feet higher than the floor of the crater. On the way, you take images with a high-resolution camera. There, you find a slab of … Continue reading Water Beyond Earth: The search for the life-sustaining liquid
50 years after the Apollo 11 landing, the US is planning on returning to the moon. While such a mission could answer new scientific questions about the history of our corner of the universe and help test new technology, lack of federal support and behind-schedule and over-budget projects make a 2024 landing a challenging goal. Continue reading Back to the Moon: Challenges Facing the 2024 Return
by Aparna Nathan Graphics by Nicholas Lue Space: It has been the final frontier ever since Captain Kirk and Starfleet shot into space at warp speed in the 1960s. But are humans really made for space? We did not evolve for the environment of space and we don’t know how space travels affects our biology. Now, NASA has a powerful new tool to tease out … Continue reading It Takes Two: Twins may be the key to understanding human biology in space
A recent NASA mission has discovered that the atmosphere on Mars has many similarities to that of Earth. Metal atoms, contained in dust particles, float down from the solar system and become trapped in the atmosphere of a planet. Energetic particles, for example from the Sun, can then rip electrons from the metal atoms, forming ions. Historically, we haven’t known what happens to these ions. Depending on the specifics of the planet in … Continue reading Metal On Mars