Following India’s maiden Mars probe launch earlier in the month, last week saw the successful launch of the Martian Atmospheres and Volatiles Evolution mission, or MAVEN for short. With the second spacecraft…
Articles on Mars
Displaying 321 - 340 of 348 articles
Our interest in our near-neighbour Mars – the hope of finding life there, or of possibly colonising it in the future – has driven several orbiting missions to the planet. These produced very detailed maps…
Last Tuesday the Indian space agency launched a mission to Mars. Its goal is to place a satellite into orbit around that planet. The probe is currently in Earth orbit (although not quite high enough yet…
Cloud formation on Mars requires a much higher humidity than cloud formation on Earth. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute…
Explosive eruptions from “supervolcanoes” may have changed the climate on ancient Mars, according to a study by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI). The study, published in the journal Nature, found…
The Observer has published what it regards as the top 20 questions in Science. Number one on the list is the question of what the universe is made of. Specifically the 95% of the universe that we cannot…
NASA has a rover called Curiosity, currently scurrying around the surface of Mars, exploring the geology with the aim of better understanding whether or not life could, at one time, have existed on the…
The oxidised mineral form of the element molybdenum, which may be crucial to the origins of life, could only have been found…
After almost a decade of exploring the surface of Mars, American space agency’s rover has found the strongest evidence yet for the presence of water on the red planet. The data comes from the rock “Esperance…
Researchers have uncovered the geological events that created opal. The formation of Australian opal was due to an extraordinary…
Cheap, fast nuclear fusion may power the first human expedition to Mars. Scientists in the US are building components of…
American multi-millionaire and “space tourist” Dennis Tito plans to help fund a trip to Mars for two intrepid astronauts – as you may have read about on The Conversation. But they won’t be stopping – just…
A recent article in Nature Geoscience suggests that at least one large, deep crater on Mars may once have supported an alkaline lake that was fed by water from kilometres below the planet’s surface. This…
The Curiosity rover has landed on Mars, driven around, started its scientific mission and, as of 4am today (AEDT), started reporting integrated science results. In a news conference at the American Geophysical…
In an announcement today, NASA poured cold water on rumours that its Curiosity rover had found life on Mars. Curiosity found evidence that it had landed on an ancient riverbed, and it identified some interesting…
A blue-light light box can be used to help reset a our internal body clocks. Scientists have found this technique can help…
The landing of the explorer Curiosity on Mars is a fantastic affirmation of the extraordinary technical capacities of humans. A series of remote, high risk choreographed moves saw a small mobile laboratory…
At 3.31pm today (AEST) the NASA control room in Pasadena, California erupted after people heard these three simple words: “touchdown signal detected”. This diminutive sentence signalled that the Curiosity…
The Mars Science Laboratory, otherwise known as the Curiosity rover, has safely landed on the red planet. While NASA engineers can now breath a sigh of relief, for a small army of people, the work on Mars…
Social media is the new frontier for space exploration, shaping an age of innovative public participation in space missions. While online communities are a-Twitter about NBC’s poor Olympic coverage, there’s…
Top contributors
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Postdoctoral research associate, University of Oxford
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Professor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL
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Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University
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Senior Instrument Scientist, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
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Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria Research Institute; The University of Melbourne
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University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona
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Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
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Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, Air University
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Professor of Planetary Science, University of Leicester
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Professor in Earth Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Emeritus Professor of Mineral Physics, University of Cambridge
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Kevin Orrman-Rossiter is a Friend of The Conversation.
Sterrenkenner, History & Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne
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Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Scientist and Adjunct Associate, Dartmouth College
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ARC Future Fellow, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University