http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. When a new president is inaugurated, it's a big event, and it calls for a big picture. To be precise, 1,474 megapixels. http://www.physorg.com/news152897991.html Technology Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:40:28 EST news152897991 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA and Google announced Monday the release of a new Mars mode in Google Earth that brings to everyone's desktop a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of the Red Planet. http://www.physorg.com/news152809684.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:08:29 EST news152809684 (PhysOrg.com) -- The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit plans diagnostic tests this week after Spirit did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive. http://www.physorg.com/news152385350.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:16:33 EST news152385350 (PhysOrg.com) -- After five groundbreaking years exploring the Red Planet, the communications engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory pretty much know what they are getting when another downlink from Spirit or Opportunity arrives. They know that with a typical transmission comes about 10 megabits of engineering data, another 4 megabits of science data, and around 26 megabits of images. They also realize that after the information is amassed and analyzed by the rovers' science teams that the most unique, scientifically exciting of that compiled data will be released via peer-reviewed papers, articles, science briefings and press releases. http://www.physorg.com/news151259758.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:35:58 EST news151259758 (PhysOrg.com) -- Mars today is a world of cold and lonely deserts, apparently without life of any kind, at least on the surface. Worse still, it looks like Mars has been cold and dry for billions of years, with an atmosphere so thin, any liquid water on the surface quickly boils away while the sun's ultraviolet radiation scorches the ground. http://www.physorg.com/news151253201.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:46:41 EST news151253201 Rocks on Mars are on the move, rolling into the wind and forming organized patterns, according to new research. http://www.physorg.com/news150644809.html Space & Earth Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:46:49 EST news150644809 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of their memorable landings on Mars. http://www.physorg.com/news149872296.html Space & Earth Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:11:36 EST news149872296 (PhysOrg.com) -- Over the last several years, scientists have built a very convincing case that Mars hosted water, at least early in its history. Recent observations from the Mars Phoenix lander and other spacecraft show that the planet still holds vast deposits of water as ice at its poles and in soil-covered glaciers in the mid-latitudes. http://www.physorg.com/news148832939.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:28:59 EST news148832939 Picture a ball. It's an ordinary ball in every way except that it is roughly 4,300 miles in diameter and is moving through the cold of space some 35 million miles from Earth, and hurtling around the sun in just less than two Earth years. This is Mars. http://www.physorg.com/news148565954.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:19:14 EST news148565954 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments. http://www.physorg.com/news148318286.html Space & Earth Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:31:26 EST news148318286 Data and images from Mars Express suggest that several Light Toned Deposits, some of the least understood features on Mars, were formed when large amounts of groundwater burst on to the surface. Scientists propose that groundwater had a greater role in shaping the martian surface than previously believed, and may have sheltered primitive life forms as the planet started drying up. http://www.physorg.com/news148225866.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:51:06 EST news148225866 NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will launch two years later than previously planned, in the fall of 2011. The mission will send a next-generation rover with unprecedented research tools to study the early environmental history of Mars. http://www.physorg.com/news147618449.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:07:29 EST news147618449 (PhysOrg.com) -- After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep. http://www.physorg.com/news147459818.html Space & Earth Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:03:38 EST news147459818 Researchers have found new evidence that the atmosphere of Mars is being stripped away by solar wind. It's not a gently continuous erosion, but rather a ripping process in which chunks of Martian air detach themselves from the planet and tumble into deep space. This surprising mechanism could help solve a longstanding mystery about the Red Planet. http://www.physorg.com/news146493498.html Space & Earth Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:38:18 EST news146493498 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists using ESA's Mars Express have produced the first crude map of aurorae on Mars. These displays of ultraviolet light appear to be located close to the residual magnetic fields generated by Mars's crustal rocks. They highlight a number of mysteries about the way Mars interacts with electrically charged particles originating from the Sun. http://www.physorg.com/news146487857.html Space & Earth Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:04:17 EST news146487857 (PhysOrg.com) -- Four intriguing places on Mars have risen to the final round as NASA selects a landing site for its next Mars mission, the Mars Science Laboratory. http://www.physorg.com/news146417016.html Space & Earth Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:23:36 EST news146417016 Vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris persist today at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on Mars, says new research using ground-penetrating radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://www.physorg.com/news146409495.html Space & Earth Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:18:15 EST news146409495 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA is looking for the right stuff, or in this case, the right name for the next Mars rover. NASA, in cooperation with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures' movie WALL-E from Pixar Animation Studios, will conduct a naming contest for its car-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover that is scheduled for launch in 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news146246203.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:56:43 EST news146246203 (PhysOrg.com) -- Carlos Lange has some sentimental thoughts about the shut down of the Phoenix Mars Lander, but science never sleeps and he's set his sights on a new mission to the Red Planet. http://www.physorg.com/news146234489.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:41:29 EST news146234489 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of scientists who analyzed data from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer onboard NASA's Mars Odyssey reports new evidence for the controversial idea that oceans once covered about a third of ancient Mars. http://www.physorg.com/news146163055.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:50:55 EST news146163055 (PhysOrg.com) -- After assessing data received from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on Thursday, mission controllers laid out plans for the rover to conserve its modest energy during the next few weeks. http://www.physorg.com/news146161070.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:17:50 EST news146161070 Off the coast of Central California, in the inky darkness of the deep sea, a bright orange metal pyramid about the size of two compact cars sits quietly on the seafloor. Nestled within the metal pyramid is the heart of the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) -the first deep-sea ocean observatory offshore of the continental United States. Six years and $13.5 million dollars in the making, the MARS Observatory went "live" on Monday, November 10, 2008, returning the first scientific data from 900 meters (3,000 feet) below the ocean surface. http://www.physorg.com/news146160940.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:15:40 EST news146160940 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit communicated via the Mars Odyssey orbiter today right at the time when ground controllers had told it to, prompting shouts of "She's talking!" among the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. http://www.physorg.com/news145815729.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:22:09 EST news145815729 (PhysOrg.com) -- Understanding how life started remains a major challenge for science. At a European Science Foundation (ESF) and COST ‘Frontiers of Science` conference in Sicily in October, scientists discussed two new approaches to the problem. The first applies complex systems theory to the chemistry that preceded early life. The second involves studying Mars, which may yield ample evidence about what Earth was like when life evolved. http://www.physorg.com/news145790809.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:26:49 EST news145790809 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments. http://www.physorg.com/news145557429.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:37:09 EST news145557429 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has communicated with controllers daily since Oct. 30 through relays to Mars orbiters. Information received over the weekend indicates Phoenix is running out of power each afternoon or evening but reawakening after its solar arrays catch morning sunlight. http://www.physorg.com/news145016383.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:19:43 EST news145016383 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA'S Phoenix Mars Lander, with its solar-electric power shrinking due to shorter daylight hours and a dust storm, did not respond to an orbiter's attempt to communicate with it Wednesday night and Thursday morning. http://www.physorg.com/news144607044.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:37:24 EST news144607044 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than scientists believed, and it played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life. http://www.physorg.com/news144420918.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:55:18 EST news144420918 (PhysOrg.com) -- European space scientists are getting closer to unravelling the origin of Mars` larger moon, Phobos. Thanks to a series of close encounters by ESA`s Mars Express spacecraft, the moon looks almost certain to be a ‘rubble pile`, rather than a single solid object. However, mysteries remain about where the rubble came from. http://www.physorg.com/news143386504.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:35:04 EST news143386504 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists now have a ‘Martian weather satellite` to observe the weather on Mars in the same way as they monitor Earth`s weather. Its first ‘weather report` has been given by a team including Oxford University scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news143124410.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:46:50 EST news143124410