Latest CRISM Stories

[ Watch the Video: Mars Dry Ice and Dunes ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new study, led by the Planetary Science Institute's Senior Scientists Candice Hansen, shows that the spring thaw on Mars leads to a variety of geologic changes on the planet's surface. Frozen carbon dioxide, also known as dry ice, is deposited on the dunes surrounding the north pole's permanent water ice polar cap. In the spring, as it begins to sublimate, or change directly from a...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has discovered evidence of a wet underground environment which suggests the planet could have once been home to a groundwater-fed lake, the US space agency announced on Sunday. The new data is the result of spectrometer data collected by the probe of the floor of McLaughlin Crater, which is 57 miles in diameter and 1.4 miles deep. The depth of the crater apparently allowed water to flow...

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A NASA spacecraft is providing new evidence of a wet underground environment on Mars that adds to an increasingly complex picture of the Red Planet's early evolution. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) The new information comes from researchers analyzing spectrometer data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which looked down on the floor of McLaughlin Crater. The Martian crater is 57...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new NASA study suggests if life ever existed on Mars, the longest lasting habitats were most likely below the Red Planet's surface. (Logo: <font size="2" face="Arial">http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO</font>) A new interpretation of years of mineral-mapping data, from more than 350 sites on Mars examined by European and NASA orbiters, suggests Martian environments with abundant liquid...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "NASA's Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "and it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human...

Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found possible flowing water on Mars.A team using the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars orbiter have tracked seasonal changes to determine that finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during the warmest months of the Mars year.The features fade during the winter, and return during the next spring.  Repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the...

MESSENGER Co-Investigator Scott Murchie, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., will be awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest honor that NASA bestows to an individual working outside the government. The award is granted only to individuals whose singular accomplishments contributed substantially to the NASA mission.Murchie is receiving the honor in recognition of his leadership of the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging...

Rocks on Mars dug from far underground by crater-blasting impacts are providing glimpses of one possible way Mars' atmosphere has become much less dense than it used to be.At several places where cratering has exposed material from depths of about 5 kilometers (3 miles) or more beneath the surface, observations by a mineral-mapping instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate carbonate minerals.These are not the first detections of carbonates on Mars. However, compared to earlier...

NASA's Mars Opportunity rover is getting important tips from an orbiting spacecraft as it explores areas that might hold clues about past Martian environments.Researchers are using a mineral-mapping instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to help the rover investigate a large ancient crater called Endeavour. MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) is providing maps of minerals at Endeavour's rim that are helping the team choose which area to...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Opportunity rover is getting important tips from an orbiting spacecraft as it explores areas that might hold clues about past Martian environments. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Researchers are using a mineral-mapping instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to help the rover investigate a large ancient crater called Endeavour. MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging...