#mars

#mars

The European Space Agency's Mars Express mission just released a stunning orbital image showing surprising changes within Mars's Utopia Planitia basin, which is thought to be the site of a now vanished sea.

A global research team has analyzed the prospects for biomineralization on Mars, a process in which bacteria, fungi, and microalgae can create minerals as part of their metabolism, offering a byproduct that could be useful to prospective Martian explorers by providing the raw materials needed to produce aggregates such as concrete. With an extremely thin and mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere, air pressure less than 1 percent of Earth's,

While sampling ancient, dry riverbed rocks on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover found something astonishing. An unusual rock contained organic, carbon-bearing minerals. Reaction fronts were enriched with iron, phosphorous, and sulfurous compounds. That organic carbon must have participated in post-depositional reduction/oxidation (redox) reactions. Many call this a potential biosignature, accompanied by extraordinary claims about Martian life. But finding "organics" anywhere says little-to-nothing about life.

Late last month NASA shared what its now-defunct InSight lander found out about the Red Planet's insides. In a study published in Science researchers reported on data from the seismometer that InSight placed on Mars's surface in 2018. By 2022, when the mission ended, the seismometer had recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes. Because a quake's seismic waves behave differently based on what kinds of material they're passing through, the shake-ups allowed scientists to study the planet's core, mantle and crust.

In 1877, Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer (and uncle of the fashion icon Elsa), started making a map of the surface of Mars, which was then at one of the closest points to Earth in its orbit. Schiaparelli was color-blind, but this affliction may have increased his ability to see geometric outlines, and what he observed on Mars was extraordinary: not only shapes that resembled oceans but long, straight lines between them.

Talk about fake news: In 1907 a New York Times banner headline declared, "There Is Life On the Planet Mars." Upping the ante the next year, the stodgy Wall Street Journal claimed "proof" of "conscious, intelligent human life" on our red neighbor. The idea of life on other planets had been orbiting the public imagination ever since the realization that the Earth wasn't alone in the solar system.

The true extent of this alien craze escaped my attention and on almost every single page, there was something to which I mumbled, "Wow, I didn't know that." Among the many well-deserved accolades about David's book is, " The Martians is ... a fizzing terrific read." (Mary Roach, author of Packing for Mars) In fact, it is far more than that.

The new centimeter-wide disks are made from two thin perforated membranes of ceramic alumina connected by tiny vertical supports. They are kept aloft by a force called photophoresis: the light-induced movement of small particles at very low atmospheric pressures. In lab experiments simulating mesospheric air pressure and illumination, the researchers showed that their devices could float passively, without any power source. Their paper reporting the results was published in Nature on August 13.

The influence of Mars in artistic Libra aligning with Uranus in chatty Gemini encourages taking calculated risks that could lead to meaningful alliances. It's a time for sharing brilliant ideas and inspiration, even if the plans are not fully formed.

Researchers discovered evidence of a 1.6-million-year cycle affecting Earth and Mars climate patterns from Jurassic lake sediments in the Sangonghe Formation, China.

Thousands of miles of ancient riverbeds have been discovered in the southern highlands of Mars, indicating the planet was once much wetter than previously believed.

"By acquiring Kellanova, Mars will add several very popular brands of potato chips and cereals to its already broad and strong product portfolio," said EU competition chief Teresa Ribera.