Science News

More than 3 billion years ago,the northern plains of Mars were covered by a vast ocean that blanketed morethan a third of the red planets surface, new research suggests.

Now scientists have analyzedglobal databases of river valley networks on Mars, as well as deposits leftbehind by ancient deltas. Their research suggests 29 deltas they investigated –more than half of all those in the databases — sat at roughly the same heightsome 3.

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A new discovery of bacterial life in a Martian-like environment on Earth suggests our neighboring red planet could also be hospitable to some form of microbial life.

This spring is similar to possible past or present springs on Mars, the scientists say, so it hints that microbial life could potentially exist there, too.

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Crafty detective work based on data from NASAs Mars rover Spirit has uncovered large amounts of a rare type of Martian rock that adds more evidence that the red planet may have harbored liquid water in the ancient past.

Carbonates are minerals that contain carbon dioxide and form readily in the presence of water.

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Scientists in Russia launched an ambitious Mars spaceflight simulation Thursday one that will lock six volunteers away for a record-setting 520 days to practice every step of a mission to the red planet without ever leaving Earth.

“Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!” wrote French engineer Romain Charles, one of ESAs two crewmembers in the simulation, in a mission diary on Wednesday.

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An international team of researchers in Russia on Thursday began a grueling simulation of a flight to Mars that will keep them locked in a cascade of windowless modules for 520 days - the amount of time required for a journey to the Red Planet and back to Earth.

The six-member, all-male crew - consisting of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese - expressed confidence that their mission would be a success.

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The red planet Mars and a bright star are teaming up in June to offer a colorful show in the night sky for amateur astronomers.

Mars will appear halfway up in the western sky after dusk by forming a striking “double star” with the first-magnitude star Regulus from now through the middle of June. The red planet shines within 5 degrees of Regulus from May 28 to June 15.

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Huge troughs curving outward from the north pole of Mars like the arms of a pinwheel were not carved into the polar ice caps by some mysterious force, researchers have discovered. Instead, the shifting pattern arose from a long process of formation and erosion that gave it the appearance of slowly moving and spiraling inward over time.

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NASA has officially called it quits for the Mars landing craft Phoenix, two years after the stationary probe touched down on the frigid northern polar surface of the Red Planet, the space agency said on Monday.

But the probe went dormant after the sun dipped below the polar horizon, plunging the landing site into super-cold, round-the-clock darkness for the fall and winter months of the Martian calendar.

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The Phoenix lander will not rise again.

A recent image taken by an orbiting spacecraft appeared to show one of Phoenix’s solar panels had collapsed from ice buildup.

NASA declared the three-legged spacecraft officially dead Monday after repeated failed attempts to regain contact.

Scientists did not expect it to survive the Martian winter but continued to listen for any signs of life.

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NASAs long-lived twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have set a new endurance record on Mars, with Opportunity hot on the heels of its sister robot for the title of longest-running mission on the Martian surface.

If Opportunity survives three weeks longer than its older robotic twin Spirit, which has been silent for weeks but may actually be hibernating, the rover will take the all-time record for the longest mission on Mars.

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