As every good marketing manager knows, value for money is a major driver for the success of a product. Being a bargain is not usually a feature of space projects, but planetary scientists will get two…
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Articles on Mars
Displaying 241 - 260 of 276 articles
Looking west after sunset on Friday September 26, the thin waxing crescent moon forms a triangle with Mercury and Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. You can see how far Mercury has…
Mars has become the destination of choice for ambitious space agencies and nations. Now India is among that group. After a successful manoeuvre the Mars Orbiter Mission (informally called Mangalyaan, which…
The red planet is about to welcome a new visitor: India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) started orbiting Mars on September 24. But MOM is not the only new kid in town. The American MAVEN explorer arrived…
Look up at the night sky this week and you’ll find Mars and Saturn together in the west. Mars stands out with its reddish colouring and you might just be able to detect a faint yellow tinge to Saturn…
The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to launch a mission to Mars by 2021. A first for the Arab world, the mission and accompanying Space Agency are a big deal for the UAE – scientifically and politically…
The canyon-like scars which line Mars’ crust are seen by many as evidence for liquid water. But a study now suggests that a different kind of fluid – one much less hospitable to life – may actually have…
According to Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, establishing a permanent presence beyond Earth is the first step humans will take towards the “divergence into a new species”. Plans to visit and even colonise…
Following India’s maiden Mars probe launch earlier in the month, last week saw the successful launch of the Martian Atmospheres and Volatiles Evolution mission, or MAVEN for short. With the second spacecraft…
Our interest in our near-neighbour Mars – the hope of finding life there, or of possibly colonising it in the future – has driven several orbiting missions to the planet. These produced very detailed maps…
Last Tuesday the Indian space agency launched a mission to Mars. Its goal is to place a satellite into orbit around that planet. The probe is currently in Earth orbit (although not quite high enough yet…
Cloud formation on Mars requires a much higher humidity than cloud formation on Earth. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute…
Explosive eruptions from “supervolcanoes” may have changed the climate on ancient Mars, according to a study by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI). The study, published in the journal Nature, found…
The Observer has published what it regards as the top 20 questions in Science. Number one on the list is the question of what the universe is made of. Specifically the 95% of the universe that we cannot…
NASA has a rover called Curiosity, currently scurrying around the surface of Mars, exploring the geology with the aim of better understanding whether or not life could, at one time, have existed on the…
The oxidised mineral form of the element molybdenum, which may be crucial to the origins of life, could only have been found…
After almost a decade of exploring the surface of Mars, American space agency’s rover has found the strongest evidence yet for the presence of water on the red planet. The data comes from the rock “Esperance…
Researchers have uncovered the geological events that created opal. The formation of Australian opal was due to an extraordinary…
Cheap, fast nuclear fusion may power the first human expedition to Mars. Scientists in the US are building components of…
American multi-millionaire and “space tourist” Dennis Tito plans to help fund a trip to Mars for two intrepid astronauts – as you may have read about on The Conversation. But they won’t be stopping – just…
Top contributors
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
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Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Professor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL
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Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University
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Senior Instrument Scientist, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
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Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria and Honorary Fellow at University of Melbourne, Museums Victoria Research Institute
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Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, Air University
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Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Planetary Exploration, University of Stirling
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Professor in Earth Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Emeritus Professor of Mineral Physics, University of Cambridge
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Sterrenkenner, History & Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Planetary Science, University of Leicester
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Professor of Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney
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Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology
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Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland
