Mars Archives

January 9, 2025January 9, 2025 by David Dickinson

The Moon Occults Mars for North America Monday Night, Just Before Opposition 2025

Now is the best time to observe Mars in 2025.

January has an amazing parade of evening planets, well worth braving the cold for. We have brilliant Venus, high to the west after sunset, reaching greatest elongation on January 10^th. Fainter Saturn sits just above Venus as the two meet on January 19^th. Meanwhile, Jupiter dominates the eastern sky, fresh off of opposition in December. But stay awake just a bit longer after dusk, and you can see Mars rising in the east.

As a special treat, observers in most of North America will also see the nearly Full Moon pass in front of Mars Monday night.

January 8, 2025January 8, 2025 by Mark Thompson

Planets Without Plate Tectonics Could Still Be Habitable

It has been thought that the existence of plate tectonics has been a significant factor in the shaping of our planet and the evolution of life. Mars and Venus don’t experience such movements of crustal plates but then the differences between the worlds is evident. The exploration of exoplanets too finds many varied environments. Many of these new alien worlds seem to have significant internal heating and so lack plate movements too. Instead a new study reveals that these ‘Ignan Earths’ are more likely to have heat pipes that channel magma to she surface. The likely result is a surface temperature similar to Earth in its hottest period when liquid water started forming.

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025 by Matt Williams

This Superbacteria can Withstand Enough Radiation to Kill a Person

A new study reveals the secret to the antioxidant that allows the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans to withstand radiation doses 28,000 times greater than what would kill a human. Credit: Northwestern University

Nature is filled with examples of extreme life (aka. extremophiles), which are so-called because they can withstand extreme conditions. These include organisms that can survive in extremely dry conditions, extreme temperatures, acidity, pressure, and even the vacuum of space. The study of these organisms not only helps scientists learn more about the kinds of environments life can survive (and even thrive) in. It also helps astrobiologists to speculate about possible life in the Universe. Perhaps the name “tardigrades” (aka. “water bears”) rings a bell, those little creatures that could survive in interstellar space?

Then you have Deinococcus radiodurans (D. radiodurans), which microbiologists call “Conan the Bacterium” due to its ability to tolerate the harshest conditions. This includes radiation doses thousands of times higher than what would kill a human, or any other organism on Earth, for that matter. In a new study, a team of researchers from Northwestern University and the Uniformed Services University (USU) characterized a synthetic organism inspired by Deinococcus radiodurans that could allow humans to withstand the elevated radiation levels in deep space, on the Moon, and Mars.

January 3, 2025January 3, 2025 by Matt Williams

New Study Explains How Mars Dust Storms Can Engulf the Planet

A dust storm spreads over the surface of Mars in 2018. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

Mars is well-known for its dust storms, which occur every Martian year during summer in the southern hemisphere. Every three Martian years (five and a half Earth years), these storms grow so large that they are visible from Earth and will engulf the entire planet for months. These storms pose a significant threat to robotic missions, generating electrostatic charges that can interfere with their electronics or cause dust to build up on their solar panels, preventing them from drawing enough power to remain operational.

While scientists have studied these storms for decades, the precise mechanisms that trigger them have remained the subject of debate. In a new study, a team of planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) has provided new insight into the factors involved. According to their findings, relatively warm and sunny days may kick off the largest storms every few years. These could be the first step toward forecasting extreme weather on Mars, which is vital for future crewed missions to Mars.

January 2, 2025January 2, 2025 by Mark Thompson

Could There Be Bacteria Living on Mars Today?

Methanogens. Credit: Maryland Astrobiology Consortium, NASA, and STScI.

Mars is often considered to be the planet most similar to the Earth. Earth however, is capable of supporting life, Mars on the other hand could not. There was once a time when it was warmer and wetter and could support life. Exploring life on Earth shows us that bacteria known as extremophiles can live in the most harsh conditions on Earth, it may just be possible that there are places on Mars that could also support these hardy forms of life. A new paper explores that possibility by studying the most extreme Earth-based bacteria that could survive under ground on Mars.

January 1, 2025January 1, 2025 by Mark Thompson

Crisscrossing Dust Devil Tracks Across the Surface of Mars

Dust Devils on Mars - NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

An incredible image of Mars has been released that captures the relentless activity of dust devils, swirling across the planet’s surface. These Martian whirlwinds form, move across the surface and dissipate before others take their place. The image was taken by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in September 2022 and shows part of the Haldane Crater, where dust devils have left their mark on the landscape. Scientists study the image tracks and the rate at which dust accumulates on Mars, helping them better understand the planet’s atmospheric processes.

December 21, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

Where’s the Most Promising Place to Find Martian Life?

In this April 30, 2021, file Image taken by the Mars Perseverance rover and made available by NASA, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter, right, flies over the surface of the planet. A new study suggests water on Mars may be more widespread and recent than previously thought. Scientists reported the finding from China's Mars rover in Science Advances on Friday, April 28, 2023. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

New research suggests that our best hopes for finding existing life on Mars isn’t on the surface, but buried deep within the crust.

December 14, 2024December 14, 2024 by Matt Williams

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches the Top Rim of the Jezero Crater

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its right-front navigation camera to capture this first view over the rim of Jezero Crater on Dec. 10th, 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 2018, NASA mission planners selected the Jezero Crater as the future landing site of the Perseverance rover. This crater was a natural choice, as it was once an ancient lake bed, as evidenced by the delta fan at its western edge. On Earth, these features form in the presence of flowing water that gradually deposits sediment over time. Combined with the fact that the Jezero Crater’s delta feature is rich in clays, this makes the region a prime target to search for biosignatures – evidence of past (and maybe present) life on Mars!

In recent news, NASA announced that the Perseverance rover had reached the top of Jezero Crater’s rim at a location the science team calls “Lookout Hill.” The rover spent the previous three and a half months climbing the rim, covering a distance of 500 vertical meters (1,640 vertical feet) and making science observations along the way. Now that it has crested the rim, Perseverance can begin what the mission team calls its “Northern Rim” campaign. Over the next year, the rover is expected to drive 6.4 km (4 mi) and visit up to four sites of interest where it will obtain geological samples.

December 4, 2024December 4, 2024 by Matt Williams

China Plans to Retrieve Mars Samples by 2031

The launch of the Tianwen-1 mission, Wenchang City, south China's Hainan Province, July 23, 2020. Credit: CFP

China’s growing presence in space has been undeniable since the turn of the century. Between sending the first “taikonaut” to space in 2003 (Yang Liwei), launching the first Chinese robotic mission to the Moon (Chang’e-1) in 2007, and the deployment of their Tiangong space station between 2021-2022, China has emerged as a major power in space. Accordingly, they have bold plans for the future, like the proposed expansion of their Tiangong space station and the creation of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) by 2035.

In their desire to become a space power that can rival NASA, China also has its sights on Mars. In addition to crewed missions that will culminate in a “permanent base,” they intend to conduct a sample-return mission in the near future. This will be performed by the Tianwen-3 mission, which is currently scheduled to launch in 2028 and return samples to Earth by 2031. In a recent article, the Tianwen-3 science team outlined their exploration strategy, including the methods used to retrieve the samples, the target locations, and how they’ll be analyzed for biosignatures that could indicate the presence of past life.

November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A CubeSat Mission to Phobos Could Map Staging Bases for a Mars Landing

The moons of Mars are garnering increased attention, not only because they could provide a view of the solar system’s past but also because they could provide invaluable staging areas for any future human settlement on Mars itself. However, missions specifically designed to visit Phobos, the bigger of the two moons, have met with varying stages of failure. So why not make an inexpensive mission to do so – one that could launch multiple copies of itself if necessary? That’s the idea behind a CubeSat-based mission to Phobos, known as Perseus, which was initially described back in 2020.