‘Marsquakes’ may solve 50-year-old mystery about the Red Planet | Live Science

January 22, 2025January 21, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Recordings of Martian earthquakes, or “marsquakes,” collected by a robot on the Red Planet may have finally solved a 50-year-old mystery: why one half of Mars is so drastically different from the other.

Since the 1970s, researchers have known that Mars is split into two main areas. The northern lowlands cover around two-thirds of the planet’s northern hemisphere, while the southern highlands cover the rest of the planet and have an average elevation roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) higher than that of the northern lowlands. Mars’ crust, which sits on top of a mantle of molten rock similar to the one inside Earth, is also thicker in the southern highlands. This planetary imbalance is known as the “Martian dichotomy.”

Massive solar explosion felt on Earth, the moon, and Mars simultaneously for the 1st time ever | Live Science

August 7, 2023August 6, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On Oct. 28, 2021, a huge burst of plasma and magnetized particles erupted from the sun. The massive solar outburst washed over Earth, the moon, and Mars, bathing them in radiation. And, for the first time, instruments on all three bodies measured the same event almost simultaneously.

On Mars, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and NASA’s Curiosity rover registered the influx of energized particles. On the moon, these particles were picked up by the Chinese National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). And closer to home, the German Aerospace Center’s Eu:CROPIS satellite detected the radiation from low Earth orbit. The effects of this solar hat trick were reported Aug. 8 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

NASA Wants You to Live In a Simulated Mars Environment | Digital Trends

August 10, 2021August 8, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live on Mars, now is your chance to find out. NASA is recruiting crew members for a simulation mission who will live on a Mars-like environment on Earth for one year.

Simulated missions help agencies figure out what the psychological response to a year of isolation and potentially stressful tasks will be. This is particularly important for a future mission to Mars, which will be farther away from Earth than any human has traveled before.

Why Is Water So Essential for Life? | Live Science

October 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Water. It’s found everywhere on Earth, from the polar ice caps to steamy geysers. And wherever water flows on this planet, you can be sure to find life.

“When we find water here on Earth — whether it be ice-covered lakes, whether it be deep-sea hydrothermal vents, whether it be arid deserts — if there’s any water, we’ve found microbes that have found a way to make a living there,” said Brian Glazer, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who has studied astrobiology.

That’s why NASA’s motto in the hunt for extraterrestrial life has been “follow the water.”