New orbiter data support an important role for seasonal frost—not liquid water—in the formation of Martian gullies.
Mars
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Rocks in Chile Help Scientists Hunt for Life on Mars
Investigating oxalate minerals in the Atacama Desert provides a terrestrial analogue to test techniques that could be used to study the carbon cycle in the cold deserts of Mars.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Minerals Hint at Liquid Groundwater, More Oxygen in Mars's Past
Manganese deposits in Gale Crater fractures are similar to Earth features that usually require flowing water and highly oxidizing conditions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Reconstructing Catastrophic Floods on Earth and Mars
A new theoretical model suggests that ancient floods that carved canyons on Earth and Mars may have been much smaller but lasted longer than previously thought.
Posted inNews
Precision Landing Will Be Key to NASA's Mars 2020 Rover
Landing robotics distinguish the craft from past models, allowing researchers to target smaller flat areas that are surrounded by rock.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Carbon Dioxide Frost May Keep Martian Soil Dusty
Temperature readings acquired from orbit show that Mars's surface gets cold enough at night to allow layers of solid carbon dioxide frost up to several hundred micrometers thick to build up near the equator.
Posted inNews
As Mars Gets Close, So Does a Blitz of Red Planet Dramas
NASA's first Mars program director advised the creators of the new film The Space Between Us, which opens this summer, on the science related to Mars colonization.
Posted inAGU News
How on Earth to Decide Where on Mars to Land?
The Public Lecture at AGU's 2016 Fall Meeting will feature three experts—including one still in high school—to discuss landing site selection for the Mars 2020 rover.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious Heavy Ion Beams Above Mars Explained
NASA's latest mission to Mars has uncovered the origins of fast-moving streams of particles high above the planet, flowing against the solar wind.
Posted inNews
Tsunamis Splashed Ancient Mars
Massive meteorites likely slammed into a Martian ocean billions of years ago, unleashing tsunami waves up to 120 meters tall, a close study of a region of the Red Planet's terrain has found.