Latest Geology of Mars Stories

Mars is showing scientists its older, craggier face buried beneath the surface, thanks to a pioneering sounding radar co-sponsored by NASA aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Observations by the first project to explore a planet by sounding radar strongly suggest that ancient impact craters lie buried beneath the smooth, low plains of Mars' northern hemisphere. The technique uses echoes of waves that have penetrated below the surface."It's almost like having X-ray...

By ALICIA CHANG LOS ANGELES - A provocative new study of photographs taken from orbit suggests that liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars as recently as several years ago, raising the possibility that the Red Planet could harbor an environment favorable to life. The crisp images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor do not directly show water. Rather, they show apparently recent changes in surface features that provide the strongest evidence yet that water even now sometimes flows on the...

NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years. "These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Washington.Liquid water, as opposed to the water ice and water vapor known to exist at Mars, is considered necessary for life. The...

The classic technique for assessing the history of a rocky planet's geology is to count craters. On average, areas with longer exposure to space have had more impacts, and therefore more craters. By counting craters, scientists have broken the geologic history of Mars into three eras: Noachian (warm and wet), Hesperian (volcanic), and the present-day Amazonian (cold and dry). Following Earthly practice, each era is named for the location where the characteristic terrain was first...

By Irene KlotzHOUSTON (Reuters) - To learn if Mars ever supported life, researchers should look underground, a scientist presenting results of the Mars Express mission said at a conference this week.The European Space Agency's orbiter has mapped almost the entire planet for minerals that bear chemical fingerprints of past encounters with water.Less than 1 percent of the planet's surface bears signs of hydrated minerals, said Jean-Pierre Bibring, the lead investigator for the Mars Express...

ESA -- Substantial quantities of liquid water must have been stably present in the early history of Mars. The findings of OMEGA, on board ESA's Mars Express, have implications on the climatic history of the planet and the question of its 'habitability' at some point in its history.These conclusions were drawn thanks to data on Martian surface minerals obtained by OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Mineralogy, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité), the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer on board...

Astrobiology Magazine -- These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole. The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 meters per pixel. The unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5° North and...

Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist for the European Space Agency, provides on overview of the most notable discoveries made during the Mars Express mission, Europe's first trip to the Red Planet. In part two of this overview, Foing looks at how these discoveries could help pinpoint the prospects for life on Mars.Astrobiology Magazine -- The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has been orbiting Mars for over a year. While the high resolution images of the planet's many craters,...

At the recent European Space Agency's Mars Express conference, scientists announced they had found a frozen sea on the martian equator. John Murray, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the Open University in the UK, is lead author on the paper to be published in the journal Nature. Astrobiology Magazine editor Leslie Mullen sat down with Murray to discuss the new finding.Astrobiology Magazine -- At the recent European Space Agency's Mars Express conference, scientists announced they had...

While most planetary scientists believe water on Mars is the best clue to finding interesting rock samples, there are big questions that remain about where exactly that water may be found. New results give a short-list for some who track the water history on the red planet.Astrobiology Magazine -- Mars Express, Europe's first mission to the Red Planet, has generated a slew of new data about the mineral composition of the planet's dry, dramatic surface. In six new papers published online by...