MARS

Posted by god 7 minutes ago (http://www.physorg.com) View profile Category: Miscellaneous (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has groomed the bottom of a shallow trench to prepare for collecting a sample to be analyzed from a hard subsurface layer where the soil may contain frozen water. Add this link to...  Bury Add to... Read Full Story

ESA’s Mars Express and its High-Resolution Stereo Camera returned outstanding images of Echus Chasma, one of Mars’s largest water source regions on the Red Planet. Another area is its main valley, the Kasei Valles, which connects the Echus Chasma and the plain Chryse Planitia on the East with both valley branches exhibiting a depth of 2900 metres. Considered one of the largest outflow channel systems on Mars, the Kasei Valles is estimated to be formed by gigantic floods and possibly shaped... Read Full Story

“We are looking for patterns of movement and phase change,” said Michael Hecht, lead scientist for Phoenix’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, which includes the conductivity probe. “The probe is working great. We see some changes in soil electrical properties, which may be related to water, but we’re still chewing on the data.” NASA’s Phoenix Lander is working a Monday schedule that involves staying awake all night—not yet previously done—in order to monitor changes in... Read Full Story

Scientists believe NASA's Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while recently digging a trench in the soil of the Martian arctic, the mission's principal investigator said Thursday. Crumbs of bright material initially photographed in the trench later vanished, meaning they must have been frozen water that vaporized after being exposed, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that... Read Full Story

   ”It’s been more than 11 years since we had the idea to send a microscope to Mars and I’m absolutely gobsmacked that we’re now looking at the soil of Mars at a resolution that has never been seen before,” said Tom Pike of Imperial College London. He is a Phoenix co-investigator working on the lander’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer. ***************************************************************************** Today the eyes of the world are on Mars, with the first... Read Full Story