If humans ever discover life on Mars, this is how it might start: with a breaking-news alert heralding a startling development well beyond Earth. On a recent Saturday afternoon, The New York Times sent a bulletin: “Mars is belching a large amount of methane gas. It’s a sign of possible life on the red planet.”Read the Full Story at Atlantic. (Photo: NASA / JPL-CALTECH / MSSS)
NASA’s Opportunity rover explored the surface of the Red Planet, Mars, for almost 15 years when Opportunity suddenly stopped communicating with Earth. And now we know why!
Opportunity had come upon the skeleton of a dead Thark, clearly validating Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 claim of life on Mars. But the excitement was just too much for Opportunity, and before it could transmit this incredible discovery to Earth, its machinery stopped – creating the universe’s first ever motor heart attack.
The scene is poignantly portrayed in this excellent illustration by Doug Lefler (www.douglefler.com) who is currently Head of Story for The Third Floor – the world’s largest visualization company for the entertainment industry.
Thank you, Doug, for explaining how too much excitement and exhilaration caused the sad demise of Opportunity.
Opportunity Rover photos, at top, from NASA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Opportunity, the Mars rover that was built to operate for just three months but kept going and going, rolling across the rocky red soil, was pronounced dead Wednesday, 15 years after it landed on the planet. The six-wheeled vehicle that helped gather critical evidence that ancient Mars might have been hospitable to life was remarkably spry up until eight months ago, when it was finally doomed by a ferocious dust storm.Read the Full Story at AP News. (Photo by NASA via AP)
“NASA’s InSight lander has deployed its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone. New images from the lander show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-colored covering faintly illuminated in the Martian dusk. It looks as if all is calm and all is bright for InSight, heading into the end of the year.”
Read the Full Article On Science Daily.
(photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Flying over the frigid northern reaches of Mars, the orbiting Mars Express satellite captured images of the 50-mile wide Korolev crater filled with ice.
Korolev is an especially alluring sight, not just because it’s a well-preserved impact crater but because it’s loaded with ice over a mile deep year round.
Read the Full Article on Yahoo News
(Image: esa)
Five years and 60 potential locations later, NASA has chosen the Jezero Crater as the landing site for its Mars 2020 rover mission.
Slated to launch in July, the Mars 2020 rover mission will touch down at the Jezero Crater as NASA’s exploration of the Red Planet enters its next phase.
Read the Full Story at Tech Crunch.
(Photo Courtesy of Tech Crunch)
Evidence that a lake lies beneath the southern polar ice cap of Mars was discovered in July by an orbiting probe, marking the first time a persistent body of liquid water has been found on the red planet. This announcement naturally led many to wonder: does this mean there is life on Mars? Astrophysicist and author Dr. David H. Grinspoon will walk us through this exciting discovery and what’s next in the mission to ascertain if anything might be swimming in these Martian waters.
Check out the Full Schedule & Buy Tickets Here!
For over two months, there has been no sign of NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover. The car-sized space machine, worth a whopping $400 million, signed offline as it disappeared inside a massive Martian dust storm on June 10.
A team of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. have been eagerly listening for signs of life from the rover. So far, all they’ve heard is silence.
Read the Full Article Here.
Read the Full Article and see More Photos on Business Inside!
(Photos by REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona and NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AP)
A massive ancient ocean once covered nearly half of the northern hemisphere of Mars making the planet a more promising place for alien life to have gained a foothold, Nasa scientists say.
The huge body of water spread over a fifth of the planet’s surface, as great a portion as the Atlantic covers the Earth, and was a mile deep in places. In total, the ocean held 20 million cubic kilometres of water, or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found.
Read the Full Article at The Guardian. 
