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Mars Rover Snaps Stunning Self-Portrait
NASA put together this artsy image of Mars rover Opportunity getting a glimpse of its own shadow on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The robotic geologist used its panoramic camera to take about a dozen shots using an assortment of filters between about 4:30 and 5 p.m. Mars time on March 9.
The images were transmitted back to Earth where a team of scientists assembled them into this mosaic, which was released Wednesday.
Source: news.discovery.com
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Bouncing Sands of Mars Blow in the Wind
Because Mars has an atmosphere 100 times less dense than Earth’s, scientists figured hurricane-force winds are needed to move sand around in the thin Martian air, and winds that high are rare.
But this turns out to be only half the story.
Source: news.discovery.com
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Mars Life Search To Go In High Gear
Looking to make planetary exploration lemonade out of budgetary lemons, NASA says it is open to taking a quicker route to the holy grail of Mars — learning if there is or was life there.
Citing lack of budget, the Obama administration wants to pull out from a flagship expedition with Europe to return soil and rock samples from Mars.
The point of the multibillion-dollar, multi-spacecraft campaign, slated to get under way in 2016, is to determine if Earth’s neighbor has or ever had life. NASA was to provide the launches, landing system and some science instruments, among other contributions.
Even if Congress nixes a U.S. pullout from the project, it may be too late. Europe already has a new partner for the mission — Russia.
Source: news.discovery.com
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Mars Viking Robots ‘Found Life’
New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week.
Further, NASA doesn’t need a human expedition to Mars to nail down the claim, neuropharmacologist and biologist Joseph Miller, with the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, told Discovery News.
“The ultimate proof is to take a video of a Martian bacteria. They should send a microscope — watch the bacteria move,” Miller said.
“On the basis of what we’ve done so far, I’d say I’m 99 percent sure there’s life there,” he added.
Source: news.discovery.com
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Nine Exoplanets Discovered in Solar System’s ‘Twin’
n 2010, a star 127 light-years away stunned the world — it had become the largest star system beyond our own, playing host to five, possibly seven, alien worlds. Now, the star (called HD 10180) is back in the headlines; it may actually have nine exoplanets orbiting it.
Interestingly, HD 10180 is a yellow dwarf star very much like the sun, so this discovery has drawn many parallels with our own Solar System. It is a multi-planetary system surrounding a sun-like star.
It is believed that one of HD 10180’s exoplanets is small — although astronomers only know the planets’ masses, not their physical size or composition. The smallest world weighs-in at 1.4 times the mass of Earth, making it a “super-Earth.”
Source: news.discovery.com
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Weird Phenomena and Weather on Mars
Photo 1: Winter Frost
Frost, fog and clouds cover the rim of Mars’ Lomonosov Crater, a lava-filled basin located in the planet’s northern plains.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Photo 2: Spring Thaw
Ah, springtime on Mars. A time when the dry ice cracks and sand escapes from the dunes below.
This image, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows bluish cracks in the carbon dioxide ice covering dunes on the planet’s north pole. The dark fan-shaped deposits around the edges of the dunes are places where the carbon dioxide ice has sublimated, or transformed directly into gas, which causes ruptures in layer of dry ice. That allows underlying sand to escape, where it is picked up and blown by the wind.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA
more images here
Source: news.discovery.com
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How to Watch the Mars Close-Up This Weekend
February’s spectacular planetary show continues. After Venus and Jupiter lined up in the night sky last week, the distance between Earth and Mars is now shrinking to its smallest in more than two years.
On March 3 Mars will be in opposition to the sun, providing excellent opportunities for viewing the Red Planet.
The celestial event known as Mars opposition occurs whenever Earth passes between the sun and the Red Planet, approximately once every two years and two months. This makes Mars visible opposite the sun in the Earth’s sky, which is a great time to view the Red planet because the sun’s rays illuminate the full face of Mars. Because the two planets’ orbits regularly bring them close together, it also provides a good time to launch Mars missions such as the recent Mars Science Laboratory.
Mars and Earth will actually be at their closest on March 5, so you have a decent chance to catch the Red Planet anytime in the next few weeks.
How to Watch
- To spot Mars with your naked eye, look for a bright orange-red dot in the eastern sky shortly after the sun sets. The planet, which can be distinguished from stars because it doesn’t twinkle, will rise to its highest position in the southern sky around midnight.
- Those with a modest-sized telescope should have good views of Mars’ surface features, including its white polar caps.
- Anyone without access to a telescope can catch a live feed of the opposition event from the Slooh Space Camera on March 3 starting at 8:00 p.m. PST. Come back tomorrow evening to our site for an embedded video from Slooh. The Slooh show will feature commentary by the organization’s Patrick Paolucci, Astronomy Magazine columnist Bob Berman, and some special guests.
Image: An image of Mars during opposition taken with the world’s best telescope, Hubble, in 2001. NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA
Source: Wired
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Mars Rover Discovers ‘A Completely New Thing’
While looking for a safe place to weather the winter, the rover spied something protruding from the Mars soil — something never seen before.
Source: news.discovery.com
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If there was life on Mars, scientists may have found its final resting spot.
Source: news.discovery.com
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Trickles of Salt Water — On Mars
Source: discoverynews
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