Mars Opportunity Rover Examines Rock With Unique Composition
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has discovered a pale rock that has a higher composition of aluminum and silica and a lower concentration of calcium and iron than any other...
Latest Mars Stories
WASHINGTON, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists using images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have estimated that the planet is bombarded by more than 200 small asteroids or bits of comets per year forming craters at least 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) across. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Researchers have identified 248 new impact sites on parts of the Martian surface in the past decade, using images from the spacecraft to determine...
Full-Size Mars Curiosity Rover Exclusively on Display, Free Solar Observing, Summer Sky Watching Tips, Enter to Win a Telescope and More! CHICAGO, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Celebrate the opening of the Adler's new show Cosmic Wonder and the summer-long programming, 100 Days of Wonder, with free solar observing (weather permitting), sky watching tips from Adler staff, Curiosity mission updates, family activities and more! Adler visitors can also enter to win a...
PASADENA, Calif., May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Mars has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) This second drilling target, called "Cumberland," lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) west of the rock where Curiosity's drill first touched Martian stone in February. Curiosity took the...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new study from an international group of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) reveals that snowstorms that lash the northern hemisphere of Mars during the harsh winters may be predicted several weeks in advance. The team’s calculations reveal a connection between the snowfalls and a weather phenomenon special to Mars: fluctuations of pressure, temperature, wind speeds and directions that in...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online An organization seeking to establish a human settlement on Mars announced on Tuesday that it has received over 78,000 applications. Mars One announced that just two weeks into a 19-week application period it has seen a number of applications come in from over 120 countries, including the US, China, UK, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Argentina and India. “With seventy-eight thousand applications in two weeks, this is...
TORONTO, May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - MaRS Discovery District is pleased to announce the appointment of Salim Teja as Managing Director of its ICE sector programs. "Salim Teja is highly respected and the ideal leader to take MaRS' growing ICE practice to the next level," said Ilse Treurnicht, CEO, MaRS Discovery District. "With his unique, extensive experience as an entrepreneur and investor, and as an executive leading sales, business development and operations in high-growth...
[ Listen to the Podcast Series: Is A Mission To Mars Possible? ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online During the Humans to Mars Summit at George Washington University yesterday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden laid down some thoughts about the US space agency sending man to the Red Planet. Bolden started off his keynote speech by addressing the growing international interest in sending humans to Mars, while also pointing out how even President Barack Obama has...
KENTFIELD, Calif., May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Adam Steltzner, NASA JPL lead engineer and College of Marin alumnus, led the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Team for the NASA Mars Curiosity Rover. He has been a featured guest in variety of print stories, and on television and radio broadcasts, including the New Yorker, NPR, CNN and Nova. WHO: Dr. Adam Steltzner, lead mechanical engineer of the NASA Mars Rover Landing Project, guest lecturer WHAT: College of Marin Grand Opening,...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Currently, if scientists want to study meteorites that had originated from the red planet, they have to rely upon celestial travelers that arrived on this planet so long ago they now possess characteristics that tell of their time on Earth. This masks most clues that might offer information about the meteorites' time on Mars. However, a team of scientists has examined a meteorite that formed on Mars more than a billion years ago in...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA has announced a new campaign that will send people to Mars this year – well, at least their names and a brief message. The space agency is inviting people to submit their names online along with a personal message for a DVD to be carried aboard the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft that will be launched later this year. The DVD will carry every name submitted and three brief accompanying messages that...
Latest Mars Reference Libraries
Hematite (AE) or haematite (BE) is the mineral form of Iron (III) oxide, (Fe2O3), one of several iron oxides. The ore sometimes contains slight amounts of titanium. When shaped into ornaments, it is often called black diamond. Hematite is a very common mineral, coloured black to steel or silver-gray, brown to reddish brown, or red. It is mined as the main ore of iron. Varieties include Bloodstone, Iron Rose, Kidney Ore, Martite, Paint Ore, Specularite (Specular Hematite), Rainbow Hematite...
Terraforming -- Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") is the process of modifying a planet, moon or other body to a more habitable atmosphere, temperature or ecology. The term was first used in a science fiction novel, 'Seetee Shock' (1940?) by Jack Williamson, but the actual concept is older than that. An example in fiction is 'First and Last Men' by Olaf Stapledon in which Venus is modified, after a long and destructive war with the original inhabitants, who naturally object to the...
Extraterrestrial Life -- Extraterrestrial life is life beyond planet Earth (apart from humans travelling in space, and living organisms they bring along or send). There are many questions about extraterrestrial life, including: -- Does it exist? -- Where? -- What kind? -- Could there be non-carbon based life forms, e.g. life forms based on other elements like silicon (See Carbon chauvinism)? -- How does life differ depending on the type of structure (unicellular life,...
Drake Equation -- The Drake equation (also known as the Green Bank equation) is a famous result in the speculative fields of xenobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This equation was devised by Dr. Frank Drake in the 1960s in an attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy with which we might come in contact. The main purpose of the equation is to allow scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors which determine the number...
Olympus Mons -- Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain in the solar system, at 25 km. Located on Mars, and officially called by its Latin name Olympus Mons. It is named for the mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is an apparently extinct shield volcano, the result of highly fluid magma flowing out of volcanic vents over a long period of time, and is much wider than it is tall; the average slope of Olympus Mons' flanks is very gradual. The Hawaiian islands are an example of similar shield...
![Opportunity Heads Toward Next Destination, \](/media/gallery/mars-exploration-rover-opportunity/thumbs/thumbs_pia16931_opportunity_map_may_2013.jpg "Opportunity Heads Toward Next Destination, \")
![Rock Target \](/media/gallery/mars-exploration-rover-opportunity/thumbs/thumbs_pia16930_sol3262b_p2579_l257f.jpg "Rock Target \")
