Mars polar cap is misplaced due to Red Planet: related news

Mars polar cap is misplaced due to Red Planet

Paris, September 23 : Data from ESA's (European Space Agency's) Mars Express spacecraft has enabled scientists to better explain why Mars's residual southern ice cap is misplaced, attributing the cause of the mystery to the Martian weather system.

Mars Polar Cap Mystery Solved: Why Southern Ice Cap Is 'Misplaced'

Scientists are now able to better explain why Mars’s residual southern ice cap is misplaced, thanks to data from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft - the martian weather system is to blame. And so is the largest impact crater on Mars – even though it is nowhere near the south pole.

Mars polar cap mystery solved

This is a mosaic of images taken by the Mars Expresss Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer OMEGA. It shows the residual south polar cap at the end of northern winter on the Red Planet. The cap appears clearly asymmetric its centre ...

Mars Satellite's First Weather Report

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling Mars for over two years now, and has provided unprecedented views of the Red Planet with its HiRISE Camera. But did you also know that MRO is a weather-monitoring satellite, too? The Mars Climate Sounder instrument is examining the Martian atmosphere and has issued its first Mars weather report. "It has taken 20 years and three missions but we finally have an instrument in orbit that gives us a detailed view of the entire atmosphere of Mars and it is already giving us fresh insights into the Martian climate," said Professor Fred Taylor of Oxford University. Within a paper issued by the Mars 'weather team' comes surprising news: during the freezing Martian winter the atmosphere above the planet’s South Pole is considerably warmer than predicted.

Was Life on Mars Extinguished Prematurely by a Huge Impact?

We keep sending missions to Mars with the key objective to search for past or present life. But what if a huge impact early in the Red Planet's history hindered any future possibility for life to thrive? Recent studies into the Martian "crustal dichotomy" indicate the planet was struck by a very large object, possibly a massive asteroid. Now researchers believe that this same impact may have scrubbed any chance for life on Mars, effectively making the planet sterile. This asteroid may have penetrated the Martian crust so deep that it damaged the internal structure irreparably, preventing a strong magnetic field from enveloping the planet. The lack of a Mars magnetosphere thereby ended any chance for a nurturing atmosphere…

5 Years At Mars: The Best of Mars Express

In December, the Mars Express spacecraft will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its arrival at Mars. In observation of this milestone the German Aerospace Center DLR has put together a collection of some of the best images from the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), the main camera on board the spacecraft. The stunning, high resolution images this instrument has produced of Mars' surface are nothing short of jaw dropping, and they have provided new perspectives and new discoveries about our neighboring planet. One of the iconic images from Mars Express is the image above of water ice inside a crater near Mars North Pole.

Robots On Mars Search And Catalog Red Planet

Science Friday travels to the home base of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in Tuscon, Ariz., to discuss the continuing exploration of Mars. Scientists explain how various robots, both on the surface and in orbit, are mapping and cataloging the Red Planet.

Precious Gems Discovered on Mars

The discovery of a water-based mineral on Mars by the spectrometer on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than was previously thought, and it likely played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life. Hydrated silica, commonly known as opal, has been found across large region of Mars. "This is an exciting discovery because it extends the time range for liquid water on Mars, and the places where it might have supported life," said Scott Murchie, the principal investigator for the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "The identification of opaline silica tells us that water may have existed as recently as 2 billion years ago.

Rover Sand Traps Provide Clues on Mars Climate

If you watched the "Five Years on Mars" documentary on the National Geographic channel about the Mars Exploration Rovers, you probably saw how both rovers have gotten stuck in some of the small sand dunes on Mars surface. These dune fields on Mars are a bit of a mystery to planetary geologists, and in fact, there is nothing like them on Earth. The fields of rippled sand on Mars, called Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TARs), are found over large areas across Mars. The dunes themselves are smaller than the gigantic dunes also found on Mars, but the fields are bigger than any sand ripple fields found on Earth. TARs hold clues to past and present climate processes, and since they can be death traps for rovers, scientists want to know more about these unusual features.

The Planet Adds Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Managed Hosting Platform

HOUSTON --(Business Wire)-- The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today announced the addition of the popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system to its Planet Northstar Managed Hosting line of business. Customers with Linux, Microsoft or blended environments can now take advantage of premium managed hosting services. As one of just two Red Hat Premier Hosting Partners, the Planet Northstar engineering team will have direct access to the company's product roadmaps and new platform features, creating a technically superior hosted environment for its customers.

Mars Trek: TV Show Dramatizes Five Years of Red Planet Roving

Mars, the red planet, these are the journeys of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, their five year missions to explore strange new surfaces, to seek out new water evidence and new signs of life, to boldly roll where no rovers have gone before...

Mars Science Laboratory: Still Alive, For Now

The Mars Science Laboratory, the next generation of Mars rovers slated to head to Mars in 2009, is still alive, for the time being. The car-sized rover designed to look for life on Mars is over budget and behind schedule due to technical problems, and NASA officials met today to discuss their options. Potentially, Congress could pull the plug on the mission if cost overruns go too high. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler were briefed, and met with mission managers in attempt to work out a potential solution. In a press briefing today, Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters said the rover's progress will be assessed again in January, but the mission will need more money.

Mars Lander Mission Over Says NASA

The Phoenix lander hasn't been heard from since the 2nd of November, which is believed to be due to the beginning of the Martian winter and a recent dust storm. Scientists have made efforts to re-establish contact with the spacecraft, but aren't expecting the silence to be broken. They do however, hold out hope that the lander may surprise them and will also make attempts to reactive the Phoenix once the warmth of Spring kicks in. Since the Phoenix landed on Mars on May 25th this year, it has uncovered information about the chemical composition of the soil on the red planet. NASA's next Mars mission is due to launch next summer, though could be set back until 2011.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Ceased Communications

Goodbye Phoenix Mars Lander. May be we will see you on Mars somewhere when we get there ourselves. You did a great job sending wonderful images of Mars and letting the humanity know more about the red planet. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months.

Orbiter Reveals Rock Fracture Plumbing On Mars

Riding with Robots writes "Mars researchers report that a robotic spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet has revealed hundreds of small fractures exposed on the Martian surface that once directed flows of water through underground Martian sandstone. 'This study provides a picture of not just surface water erosion, but true groundwater effects widely distributed over the planet,' said one of the mission scientists for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been regularly returning terabytes of high-resolution images and other kinds of data from Mars."

NASA Selects Mission to Study Mars Atmosphere

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has selected a Mars robotic mission that will provide information about the Red Planet's atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before. Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013. The selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity in August 2006. "This mission will provide the first direct measurements ever taken to address key scientific questions about Mars' evolution," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

ASU Mars instrument gets new lease on life as NASA extends Mars Odyssey mission

TEMPE, Ariz. - A six-minute rocket firing on September 30 has put NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft on track for a new orbit around the Red Planet. The change, part of a two-year extension for the mission, will give an ASU-operated instrument carried on Odyssey greater sensitivity for mapping Martian minerals. The instrument is the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a multi-band heat-sensing camera operated by ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility.

NASA looses contact with Phoenix Lander on the red planet

The US space agency, NASA, has lost contact with its space probe on Mars Phoenix Mars Lander, five months after it landed on the red planet's surface.

Why is Mars' Southern Polar Cap Crooked?

Mars Express Data from Mars South Pole. Credits: ESA/ Image Courtesy of F. Altieri (IFSI-INAF) and the OMEGA team

Reveal the Mars Phoenix's Classified Discoveries With Photoshop

The Mars Phoenix said goodbye last week. It's very sad, like the end of Wall-E. Publicly, the Mars Phoenix was sent to study the planet's water history and whether it could have ever supported life. But we've all seen enough sci-fi movies involving the government to know that there's probably more to it than that, especially if Tommy Lee Jones is involved. So, use Photoshop to show us what the Mars Phoenix really discovered that the government doesn't want us to know about. Here's some Mars Phoenix images to get started.

United States: Red Hat and Ingres Offer Open Source Stack for Independent Software Vendors

Ingres and Red Hat today announced plans to work closely together with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in the EMEA region. Red Hat Inc. (NYSE:RHT), the worlds leading provider of open source solutions, and Ingres, a leading provider of open source database management software and support services, are collaborating to present ISVs with an enterprise-class business offering. A kick-off event on Thursday, November 27, 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany, will signal the start of joint activities between the companies. To register for the event, please go to www.ingres.com. Ingres is a member of Red Hat Exchange (RHX), a program through which Red Hat showcases enterprise-ready open source solutions with its ISV partners. Red Hat and Ingres are combining their proven enterprise solutions in order to provide partners with a powerful solution stack

TV Alert: Five Years on Mars

On Sunday evening Nov. 2, at 7 pm CST,(in the US; check your local listings) the National Geographic channel will be showing a special documentary on the Mars Exploration Rovers. It's called "Five Years on Mars," and dramatizes the trials and tribulations of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity and highlights new scientific information on the planet’s geology and water history. If you saw the "Mars: Dead or Alive" and "Welcome to Mars" shows, this one should be even better. The show will feature photo-realistic animation based on the actual landscape as captured by the rovers’ cameras, and interviews with MER PI Steve Squyres and others on the rover team.

Code Red, WITTENSTEIN Integrate Red Suite with State Viewer

The new Red Suite[tm] v1.6.2 professional development environment, from Code Red, integrates WITTENSTEIN Eclipse based 'State Viewer' plug-in, delivering rapid board bring-up and simple debugging of RTOS based projects on Cortex[tm]-M3 and other new-generation 32-bit microcontrollers. The first demonstration of the enhanced capabilities of the Red Suite development environment will take place on Stand 413 on the MCU Launchpad at the ARM Developers Conference to be held in Santa Clara, USA, from the 7th to 9th October.

HiRISE Reveals Rare Polar Impact Craters On Mars

An odd, solitary hill rising part-way down an eroding slope in Mars' north polar layered terrain may be the remnant of a buried impact crater, suggests a University of Arizona planetary scientist who studied the feature in a new, detailed image from the HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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