Mars

Mars rover detects carbon signature that hints at past life source | Science

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Since 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover has trundled across Mars, drilling into rocks and running the grit through a sophisticated onboard chemistry lab, aiming to tease out evidence for life. Today, a team of rover scientists announced an intriguing signal, one that may or may not be evidence of past life, but is, at the very … Read more

Earth’s Insides Are Cooling Faster Than We Thought, And It Will Mess Things Up

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Earth formed 4.5 billion years or so ago. Ever since then, it’s been slowly cooling on the inside. While the surface and atmosphere temperatures fluctuate over the eons (and yes, those external temperatures are currently warming), the molten interior – the beating heart of our planet – has been cooling this entire time.   That’s … Read more

Perseverance Has Run Into a Problem on Mars: Pebbles

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A small pile of pebbles is clogging up the Perseverance Mars rover’s operations.   The rover, which is collecting rock samples for eventual return to Earth, began to struggle on Dec. 29, after extracting a core from a rock the mission team nicknamed “Issole.”   According to a NASA blog, the problem occurred in the device that transfers … Read more

Latest Study Finds No Trace of Aliens in 4-Billion-Year-Old Martian Meteorite

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To date, we’ve found over a hundred precious Mars rocks that have travelled from the red planet and landed on Earth at some point. Among those, specimen ALH84001 might well be one of the most enigmatic.   This meteorite fragment was picked up during a snowmobile ride in the ice field of Alan Hills in Antarctica … Read more

Mars: Organic compounds were made by water interacting with rocks

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Molecules containing carbon atoms, called organics, have been found all over Mars and could hypothetically have been formed by living organisms, but it seems they were not Space 13 January 2022 By Leah Crane The Allan Hills 84001 meteorite NASA/JSC/Stanford University Organic compounds – those containing carbon atoms – found all over Mars were produced … Read more

Infamous Mars meteorite contains organic molecules, but they aren’t proof of life

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Organic molecules found in a Mars meteorite that crash-landed on Earth are not signs of life, but instead formed in chemical reactions between water and rock on the Red Planet about 4 billion years ago, a new study finds. These findings could shed light on the origins of the building blocks of life on early … Read more

There’s a Hidden Mathematical ‘Law’ in The Sand Megaripples Found All Over Earth

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Wherever there is sand and an atmosphere, prevailing winds may whip the grains into undulating shapes, pleasing to the eye with their calming repetition. Certain sand waves, with wavelengths between 30 centimeters (almost 12 inches) and several meters (around 30 feet), are known as megaripples: they’re between ordinary beach ripples and full dunes in size, … Read more

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Chokes on Mars Pebbles While Collecting a Rock Sample

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has some rocks stuck in its throat. Perseverance drilled and collected its sixth Red Planet rock sample late last month, but the car-sized rover hasn’t been able to seal up the titanium tube containing the material yet. “I recently captured my sixth rock core and have encountered a new challenge. Seems some … Read more