Tag Archives: nasa
Mysterious Mars rock formation explained
The Medusae Fossae Formation rises near the equator of Mars. The soft rock has been carved by wind erosion into a collection of ridges, valleys and striking mesas. It’s massive. It’s strange. And scientists are now tracing its origin to explosive volcanic activity in Mars’ deep past.
NASA has referred to Medusae Fossae as “an enigmatic pile of eroding sediments.” UFO enthusiasts once spotted what they believed to be a UFO there, which is mainly a testament to the exotic shapes formed in the wind-blasted area.
Read the Full Story on CNET.
Mars 360 Degree VR Panorama
The Mars rover just sent back data that has scientists completely stumped
The Curiosity rover has been cruising around on Mars since late 2012, so you’d think that scientists would have a pretty good handle on the kind of data it’s been sending back by now. However, some of the latest readings the rover has taken are totally contradicting many of the theories scientists have about Mars, and most notably when and how liquid water existed on its surface.
Read the full article at BGR!
Curiosity Rover Finds Weird ‘Egg Rock’ Meteorite on Mars
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity stumbled upon a dark grey, golf-ball-size object last week that looks nothing like the typical red-orange rocks that are normally seen on Mars.
To figure out exactly what this weird rock is and where it came from, Curiosity used its on-board rock-zapping laser to analyze the rock’s chemical composition. This test revealed that it is an iron-nickel meteorite that fell from the Martian sky. Curiosity’s science team dubbed the newfound meteorite “Egg Rock.”
Read the Full Article Right Here!
The Mars Rover Sent Back Some Pictures and They Look a Lot Like the American Southwest
NASA’s Curiosity Rover recently returned some striking color images from Mars of the Murray Buttes, one of the lower regions of Mount Sharp.
The buttes and mesas are the eroded remains of ancient sandstone that have risen above the sandy, Martian surface. Studying the rock formations up close is giving scientists a better understanding of how Mars’ landscape was formed, says Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Read the Full Article Here!
Mars Panorama
Venus might have been habitable, according to NASA simulation
From the Phys.org website:
A team of researchers with NASA, Uppsala University, Columbia University and the Planetary Science Institute has created several simulations of conditions on Venus billions of years ago using Earth climate models and has found some instances that suggest the planet may at one time have been capable of harboring life. In their paper uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, the team describes their simulations and the factors they used in creating them.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-08-simulations-venus-life.html#jCp
Mars makes closest approach to Earth in 11 years on May 30
A rare opportunity on the horizon!
Last Sunday morning, Mars reached opposition with the sun, meaning the Red Planet, Earth and the sun were all arrayed in a straight line. But the moment did not mark Mars’ closest approach to Earth.
This Monday evening (May 30) at 5:35 p.m. ET, Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth since Oct. 5, 2005: 0.50321377 astronomical units (AU), or 46,762,695 miles . (One AU is the average distance from Earth to the sun — about 93 million miles.)
Read the full article right here!
Atomic Oxygen on Mars!
And so the Martian Aliens theories can continue…
A specially-equipped 747 has detected atomic oxygen in Mars’ upper atmosphere, NASA reported, marking the first time that the space agency has made that observation in four decades.
The California-based NASA plane that made the measurements is called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA. NASA reports that using an instrument on board the plane, they found the atomic oxygen in the planet’s mesosphere, which is its upper atmosphere— but only saw about half of what they thought they would.
Read the full article at Fox News!