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Deleted Scene From The Martian Shows Even MOAR SCIENCE!!1!
Have you gone to see The Martian yet? (And if you haven’t, my review of it may help speed you on your way.) Did you love it? Just kidding — of course you did. But did you read the book first? If you...
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Mars is Tearing its Moon Apart
Long grooves on Phobos are likely stress fractures caused by tidal forces. This image was acquired by HiRISE on March 23, 2008. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona) Phobos, the largest — yet at...
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A Craterful of Cracks
The northwest quadrant of a frost-filled crater on Mars. Original image ESP_042895_2495; credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Here’s a view of a section of a crater on Mars filled with a lacework of...
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Opportunity Marks 12 Years of Roving Mars
A recent view of Opportunity’s robotic arm extended to remove surface crust from a rock target called “Private John Potts,” named for a member of Lewis and Clark’s 1804 expedition. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)...
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NASA Releases Mars Rover Game for Curiosity’s 4th Anniversary
NASA’s new Mars Rover game lets you test your driving skills on the Red Planet Friday, August 5 marks the 4th anniversary of Curiosity’s landing on Mars and to celebrate NASA has released a video game...
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Opportunity Enters Its “Teenage” Years on Mars
Illustration of the Opportunity rover on Mars. (NASA/JPL) Today marks the start of the “teen years” on Mars for NASA’s Opportunity rover — it’s been busy exploring, studying, and traveling across the...
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What Warmed Mars? The Curious Case of the Missing Carbonate
Curiosity’s investigation of Mars’ surface in Gale Crater indicate that liquid water was once present (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) Everything we’ve observed so far about the surface of Mars points to an...
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HiRISE Eyes Fresh Craters on Mars
Fresh impact craters on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona) Just to remind you that things are still indeed going “boom” in our Solar System, here is a cluster of fresh craters on Mars...
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Curiosity’s Tracks Are Gone With The Wind
Images taken by Curiosity’s MARDI camera show the effect of the thin Martian wind on its wheel tracks. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) Mars may have an atmosphere just 1% the density of Earth’s but it can...
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A Look Back at Sojourner, the First Rover on Mars
The 1-foot-high Sojourner rover on Mars after deployment on July 5, 1997. The lander’s deflated air bag can be seen at lower right. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) The first mission to successfully* send a rover to...
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A Red Cent on a Red Planet: Curiosity’s 1909 Lincoln Penny
Curiosity’s calibration target, imaged with MAHLI on March 9, 2017 (mission sol 1632). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. On March 9, 2017, NASA’s Curiosity rover took this picture with its turret-mounted...
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These Are Our Best Pictures of Mars’ Smallest Moon
Mars’ smallest moon Deimos imaged by HiRISE on Feb. 21, 2009. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) Mars isn’t a planet well-known for its natural satellites but it actually does have two small moons. The...
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Opportunity Looks Back on Its Downhill Departure from Cape Tribulation
An approximate true-color view from Opportunity acquired on April 21, 2017. (Click for full size.) It’s all downhill from here! (Well not really, but it was for a little while when Opportunity was at...
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Opportunity Spots Phobos Skimming the Sun
Animation of raw panorama camera images from NASA’s Opportunity rover on May 3, 2017. NASA/JPL-Caltech; animation by Jason Major It may be in its 14th year on Mars but Opportunity still has some...
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High-Resolution Maps Indicate a Past Watery Environment in Mars’“Grand Canyon”
HiRISE image of Candor Chasma, a region of Values Marineris recently mapped by the USGS and found to exhibit signs of past water. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona ) If you’ve ever visited the Grand...
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Have No Fear, Phobos is Here!
Mars and Phobos imaged by Hubble on may 12, 2016. Credits: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI), Acknowledgment: J. Bell (ASU) and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute). On May 12, 2016, the Hubble Space...
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ESA Grabs Glimpses of Mars’ Groovy Moon
This animation is comprised of three images acquired by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft on Sept. 12, 2017 with its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). It shows parts of the grooved and pitted surface...
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Our First Close-up Images of Mars From Space Were Hand-Colored with Crayons....
Hand-colored data from Mariner 4, the “first TV image of Mars,” captured on July 15, 1965. Via Dan Goods. In November 1964 NASA launched Mariner 4, the fourth of its ambitious series of robotic...
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An Opportunity From Above
To commemorate the 12th anniversary of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at Mars (March 10, 2006) and the still-roving Opportunity, below is an edited version of an article I wrote back in 2011...
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ESA Finds Liquid Water on Mars
Mars’ south pole is covered in layered deposits of ice and sediment. It is below such areas that liquid water has been identified by MARSIS. (Image: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) Water has...
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