The rotation of Mars as seen in a small telescope in 2003.
The rotation of Mars as seen in a small telescope in 2003.
Earth and Jupiter Captured In the Same Photograph Taken From Mars
This is a photo of the Earth and its moon and Jupiter and its moons. In the same frame. It’s taken from Mars, and it’s humbling and incredible.
Nereus Crater on Mars
Martian Landscapes - The Big Picture
A sawtooth pattern in carbon dioxide ice in Mars’ south polar region.
NASA to check for unlikely winter survival of Mars lander.
Beginning January 18, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible, though improbable, radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, which completed five months of studying an arctic martian site November 2008.
The solar-powered lander operated two months longer than its three-month prime mission during summer on northern Mars before the seasonal ebb of sunshine ended its work. Since then, Phoenix’s landing site has gone through autumn, winter, and part of spring. The lander’s hardware was not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating load of an arctic martian winter.
In the extremely unlikely case that Phoenix survived the winter, it is expected to follow instructions programmed on its computer. If systems still operate, once its solar panels generate enough electricity to establish a positive energy balance, the lander would periodically try to communicate with any available Mars relay orbiters in an attempt to re-establish contact with Earth. During each communication attempt, the lander would alternately use each of its two radios and each of its two antennas.
Odyssey will pass over the Phoenix landing site approximately ten times each day during 3 consecutive days of listening this month and two longer listening campaigns in February and March.
The inner planets. From left to right: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (sizes to scale, interplanetary distances not)
What creates these picturesque dark streaks on Mars? No one knows for sure. A leading hypothesis is that streaks like these are caused by fine grained sand sliding down the banks of troughs and craters. Pictured above, dark sand appears to have flowed hundreds of meters down the slopes of Acheron Fossae. The sand appears to flow like a liquid around boulders, and, for some reason, lightens significantly over time. This sand flow process is one of several which can rapidly change the surface of Mars, with other processes including dust devils, dust storms, and the freezing and melting of areas of ice. The above image was taken by the HiRise camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which has been orbiting Mars since 2006. Acheron Fossae is a 700 kilometer long trough in the Diacria quadrangle of Mars.
A European probe is tonight skimming past a moon that was once thought to be an alien spacecraft. Mars Express will swoop less than 42 miles over Phobos, one of two natural satellites orbiting the red planet.
The flypast - the closest ever - will allow scientists to measure deep inside the 17 mile wide, potato-shaped moon to see just what it is made of.
Phobos, thought to be an asteroid captured by Mars’s gravity, has an unusual low orbit that is taking it spiraling slowly towards an impact. That led to US President Dwight Eisenhower being briefed in 1960 that it could be a space station launched by an advanced Martian civilization.
(insert “that’s no moon, it’s a space station!” joke here)
