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. (PhysOrg.com) -- This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sample of the variety and complexity of processes that may occur on the walls of Martian craters, well after the impact crater formed. http://www.physorg.com/news178453746.html Space & Earth Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:29:56 EST news178453746 (PhysOrg.com) -- Impact craters on Mars are kind of neat. Many of them look very different than impact craters seen on Earth's moon or Mercury. Fresh lunar and Mercurian craters have ejecta blankets that look a bit rough near the crater rims; around larger craters, long rays or chains of secondary craters radiate away from the crater rims. Some Martian craters are similar to these craters, but Mars also has a high proportion of craters with forms not found on the moon or Mercury: rampart craters. http://www.physorg.com/news177321519.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:59:51 EST news177321519 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap. http://www.physorg.com/news177260630.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:40:03 EST news177260630 Once upon a time - roughly four billion years ago - Mars was warm and wet, much like Earth. Liquid water flowed on the Martian surface in long rivers that emptied into shallow seas. A thick atmosphere blanketed the planet and kept it warm. Living microbes might have even arisen, some scientists believe, starting Mars down the path toward becoming a second life-filled planet next door to our own. http://www.physorg.com/news177179617.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:34:12 EST news177179617 (PhysOrg.com) -- If you found your grandmother's diary, tattered and dust covered, up in the attic, would you read it? Of course you would. Granny was a pistol! Brush off the dust, open up the little book, and foray into her lively and interesting past. http://www.physorg.com/news176134247.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:50:02 EST news176134247 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny microscopic creatures commonly known as water bears (also called Tardigrades), along with a few other life forms, will be sent to the Martian moon Phobos to test whether organisms can survive for long periods of time in deep space. The mission, called the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE), was originally going to be launched earlier this month, but it has been delayed due to safety and technical issues. Currently, the scientists hope to launch the specimens on the Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft in 2011, the next time that the orbits of Earth and Mars offer a launch window. http://www.physorg.com/news174659888.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:39:08 EST news174659888 Wind speeds and directions were measured for the first time in the Mars polar region using the Phoenix lander`s Telltale instrument. Astronomers recorded Easterly winds of approximately 15-20 kilometres per hour during the martian mid-summer. When autumn approached, the winds increased and switched round to come predominantly from the West. While these winds appeared to be dominated by turbulence, the highest wind speeds recorded of up to nearly 60 kilometres per hour coincided with the passing of weather systems, when also the number of dust devils increased by an order of magnitude. The results are being today at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Haraldur Gunnlaugsson. http://www.physorg.com/news172305133.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:32:51 EST news172305133 (PhysOrg.com) -- The amount of electricity generated by the solar panels on Spirit has been declining for the past several Martian days, or sols, as a regional dust storm moved southward and blocked some of the sunshine at Spirit's location. The team operating the rover has responsively trimmed Spirit's daily activities and is keeping an eye on weather reports from observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://www.physorg.com/news170526074.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:10:01 EST news170526074 Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ESA plans to find out which it is. Either outcome is big news for a planet once thought to be biologically and geologically inactive. http://www.physorg.com/news169120520.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:10:03 EST news169120520 (PhysOrg.com) -- An analysis of Martian meteorites has led scientists to believe that Mars was molten for up to 100 million years after it formed, thwarting the evolution of early life on the planet. http://www.physorg.com/news167407498.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:05:57 EST news167407498 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have combined a trio of shots taken seconds apart through different colored filters to create a special-effects portrait of a moving dust devil on Mars. http://www.physorg.com/news166807575.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:00:03 EST news166807575 (PhysOrg.com) -- A crew of six today completed their simulated Mars mission after leaving a special isolation facility in Moscow, Russia, for the first time in 105 days. Their mission is part of the Mars500 programme that will help us to understand the psychological and medical aspects of long spaceflights. http://www.physorg.com/news166797151.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:36:24 EST news166797151 Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, has finished building and testing the heat shield for protecting the Curiosity rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project. This heat shield is even larger than the ones used for protecting Apollo astronauts as they returned to Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news166454521.html Space & Earth Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:23:44 EST news166454521 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research led by a UK scientist indicates that Mars had significantly warmer weather in its recent past than previously thought. The research, funded by the UK`s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, is good news in our quest for life on Mars, as the shorter the time period since the last warm weather on the planet, the better the chance that any organisms that may have lived in warmer times are still alive under the planet`s surface. http://www.physorg.com/news165509449.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:51:14 EST news165509449 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history. http://www.physorg.com/news165164322.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:30:01 EST news165164322 For the first time, direct evidence of lightning has been detected on Mars, say University of Michigan researchers who found signs of electrical discharges during dust storms on the Red Planet. http://www.physorg.com/news164468762.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:46:51 EST news164468762 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions of years at a Martian crater. http://www.physorg.com/news162139346.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 May 2009 15:43:39 EST news162139346 Questions such as "How to search for weird alien life?" and "Would Earth microbes survive if delivered to the surface of Mars?" are addressed in articles that are part of the collection of reports presented in the current issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert. http://www.physorg.com/news159540297.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:45:35 EST news159540297 (PhysOrg.com) -- Heading into a period of the Martian year prone to major dust storms, the team operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is taking advantage of eye-in-the-sky weather reports. http://www.physorg.com/news159122161.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:36:47 EST news159122161 New Rochelle, April 16, 2009-Solar energy and winds, collisions with asteroids and comets, and changing magnetic fields have all altered the environment of Mars, a planet that may have been able to support life during its history, as documented in a special collection of papers published in the current issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert. http://www.physorg.com/news159106484.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:15:08 EST news159106484 (PhysOrg.com) -- Mars Express has uncovered geological evidence suggesting that some depositional process, revealed by erosion, has been at work on large scales in the equatorial regions of the planet. If so, this would provide another jigsaw piece to be fitted into the emerging picture of Mars` past climate. http://www.physorg.com/news156697586.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:06:58 EST news156697586 (PhysOrg.com) -- On a plain that stretches for miles in every direction, the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater that has been Opportunity's long-term destination for six months. http://www.physorg.com/news156621141.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:54:50 EST news156621141 (AP) -- Did NASA's Phoenix Mars lander find evidence of liquid water before it froze to death? http://www.physorg.com/news155990881.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:59:16 EST news155990881 (PhysOrg.com) -- New images from two observations of the Martian moon Deimos and more than 600 observations of Mars, acquired by the high-resolution camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, became available for viewing Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news155846062.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:35:10 EST news155846062 The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest, but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about whether the Red Planet ever had - or still supports - life. http://www.physorg.com/news155387639.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:14:29 EST news155387639 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a race against time and the elements, engineers with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission hope to extend the lander's survival by gradually shutting down some of its instruments and heaters, starting today. http://www.physorg.com/news144511029.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:57:09 EST news144511029 Minuscule traces of cells can be detected in a mineral likely present on Mars, a new study shows. The results, obtained using a technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, could help mission scientists choose Martian surface samples with the most promise for yielding signs of life. http://www.physorg.com/news143284038.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:07:18 EST news143284038 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- From the location of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, above the Martian arctic circle, the sun does not set during the peak of the Martian summer. http://www.physorg.com/news139073545.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:32:25 EST news139073545