When searching for signs of ancient life on Mars, NASA scientists increasingly focus on organic material -- the carbon-based compounds that are the building blocks of life. Organics were found by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, and now new papers report they have also been identified by the instruments of the Perseverance rover in …
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The presence of life brings many unexpected consequences. On Earth, for instance, when cyanobacteria spread widely in ancient oceans more than two billion years ago, their production of increasingly large amounts of oxygen killed off much of the other anaerobic life present at the day because oxygen is a toxin, unless an organism finds ways …
It's been some years since Europa scientists agreed that the Jovian moon has a large global ocean beneath miles of ice. More recently, scientists have identified what they view as pockets of water surrounded by ice but much nearer the surface than the ocean below. And there has been research as well into what may …
Continue reading "Where Might Plumes of Water Vapor Come From on Icy Moons?"
For NASA to extend its space science missions well past their original lifetime in space has become such a commonplace that it is barely noticed. The Curiosity rover was scheduled to last on Mars for two years but now it has been going for a decade -- following the pace set by earlier, smaller Mars …
Continue reading "The Juno Spacecraft Images Jupiter’s Moon Europa as it Speeds Past"
As a test of our ability to damage a potentially hazardous asteroid heading our way, or perhaps to give it enough of a push that the asteroid's path is changed enough to render it harmless, a NASA spacecraft tonight successfully collided with an asteroid some 6.8 mllion miles away. The Dart spacecraft – short for …
NASA's long-time motto for exploring Mars has been "Follow the water." That has changed some in recent years, as the presence of long-ago H2O has been confirmed in many locales around the planet. Moving on, the motto today is more "Follow the organics" -- the carbon-based building blocks of life -- in the search for …
Continue reading "A Detailed New Mapping of Where Mars Once Had Plentiful Water"
Of the many barriers to a human trip to Mars where astronauts would land, explore and return to Earth, the absence of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is a big one. Without oxygen that can be collected to support life and to provide fuel for a flight home, there can be no successful human …
Continue reading "NASA Suceeds in Making Precious Oxygen from Carbon Dioxide on Mars"
When it come to habitable environments in our solar system, there's Earth, perhaps Mars billions of years ago and then a slew of ice-covered moons that are likely to have global oceans under their crusts. Many of you are familiar with Europa (a moon of Jupiter) and Enceladus (a moon of Saturn) -- which have …
Continue reading "Icy Moons, And Exploring The Secrets They Hold"
Late last month, it appeared that Russian participation in the International Space Station would end in 2024 -- or so seemed to say the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos Thirty years of unusual and successful cooperation would be coming to a close as the Ukraine war appeared to make longer-term commitments impossible, or …
This movie is built from images taken over 10 days during the full perihelion encounter when the spacecraft was nearing the Sun's corona. The perihelion is a brief moment during the encounter time, when the spacecraft is at its closest point to the Sun. The movie is from orbit 10 and dates and distances are …
Many Worlds 