The last two years of studying Mars’ glaciers have yielded more interesting results than expected
Geological and mineralogical evidence suggests that approximately four billion years ago, Mars was warm and wet enough to support abundant liquid water on its surface, ranging from rivers and lakes to a vast northern sea. This period spans two geological eras: the Noachian, which lasted from 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago, and the Hesperian, which lasted from 3.7 to approximately 3 billion years ago. The Noachian era is characterized by warmer conditions, but in its final stages, Mars would have begun to cool as it steadily lost its atmosphere to space.
Researchers have provided numerous pieces of evidence that Mars once had water. And perhaps still does
Once upon a time, liquid water was abundant on the surface of Mars—oceans, lakes, and rivers—but it disappeared about 3 billion years ago; today, rovers explore dried-up lake beds and empty riverbeds. While some of Mars’s water is locked up as ice in the polar caps and as permafrost in the mid-latitudes, the rest of Mars’s water was assumed to have escaped into space. It was thought that atmospheric water vapor was destroyed by solar ultraviolet radiation, and Mars’s low gravity was thought unable to retain the hydrogen portions of this vapor, which would then be carried into space by the solar wind without the global magnetic field to protect it. Meanwhile, the oxygen portions of the vapor would have oxidized surface rocks, leading to the formation of the rusty-red planet we see today.
Mars’ Perseverance and Curiosity rover teams have collected enough samples and are awaiting their return home
Sulfur crystals, traces of serpentine, pyroxene, and feldspar were discovered. For example, data obtained from the Perseverance rover’s instruments show that Jezero Plateau is composed almost entirely of serpentine minerals, formed by the reaction of large amounts of water with iron- and magnesium-containing minerals in igneous rocks. A variety of photomosaics were also collected, and atmospheric measurements were taken.
The Mars Express orbiter expands our exploration capabilities on Mars
Mars is covered in a remarkably diverse landscape. In fact, the planet is roughly divided into two halves: half is covered in ancient soil, dotted with craters and other signs of age and activity, while the other half is much smoother, having been covered over time by lava. These landscape features were explored in detail by Mars Express, which launched on June 2, 2003, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz-U-FG launch vehicle with a Fregat upper stage. The spacecraft continues to operate, collecting data about our planetary neighbor.
The Perseverance mission to Mars. What has been learned after nearly five years of exploration on another planet?
A key goal of the Perseverance mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the collection of samples that may contain traces of ancient microbial life. The rover is studying the planet’s past geology and climate to pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and to become the first mission to collect and preserve Martian rocks and regolith. The Mars Sample Return Program, implemented by NASA in collaboration with ESA (the European Space Agency), aims to send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
Before the New Year of 2026, the Curiosity rover has almost completed its exploration of Mount Sharp
Before Curiosity’s landing 13 years ago, the science team observed all the geological wonders scattered across the slopes of Mount Sharp and eagerly awaited the day when they would be able to use the rover to explore them. Since then, the rover has visited many of these targets—valleys, riverbeds, lake beds—and discovered several unexpected places.
Curiosity Rover in Altadena Square – A Challenging Route and Amazing Mars Landscapes
The dark blocks that occasionally appear in the rover’s path are called floating rocks, and the team is looking higher into the hills to determine their origin. As intriguing as these blocks and boulders are, they pose a serious challenge for the rover’s drivers. They managed to get the rover to its intended stopping point, which is a significant achievement in itself. The mixture of large rocks and sand is completely unfavorable for movement. The risk of the rover shifting at the wrong moment, and the robotic arm colliding with a rock that the instrument is currently exploring, would be too great.
Curiosity’s Journey Through Gediz Valley and Kings Canyon
The rover is searching for evidence that ancient Mars had the conditions necessary for microbial life, if such life existed at all, billions of years ago, when lakes and rivers existed on the Red Planet. The Gediz Valley channel, located at the foot of the 5-kilometer (3-mile) high Mount Sharp, may help tell the story: what this area looked like when Mars’s water disappeared.
Mars’ gravitational pull may influence Earth’s climate
Every 2.4 million years, Mars tugs on Earth so hard that it reshapes the ocean floor. New geological research suggests that Mars’ gravity pulls Earth closer to the sun in cycles lasting millions of years, warming our climate.
Mars’ Surface Turns Out to Be Younger Than Expected, Planet Still Seismically Active
The results suggest that the Red Planet experiences between 180 and 260 meteorite impacts per year, and these objects can be as small as basketballs, leaving craters eight meters (26 feet) across in the ground. Overall, the impact rate is two to ten times higher than predicted, depending on the size of the impactor.
Mars rover Perseverance finds interesting rock that may have harbored microbial life billions of years ago
Analysis by instruments on board the rover shows that the rock has qualities that meet the definition of a possible indicator of ancient life. The rock contains chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by life billions of years ago, when there was flowing water in the area the rover was exploring. The science team is considering other explanations for the observed features, and further research will be needed to determine whether ancient life is a valid explanation.
Scientists are preparing to populate and terraform Mars
We could terraform Mars with desert moss. Among its recent discoveries, the rover found rocks made of pure sulfur. From October 2023, the rover will explore a region of Mars rich in sulfates, a type of salt containing sulfur and formed when water evaporates. NASA finds ice on Mars with new map. NASA selects commercial service research to support robotic science on Mars. owe Industries is currently developing a propulsion system that can generate up to 100,000 N of thrust with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds, the high efficiency of the system allows for manned missions to Mars to be completed in just two months.
A whole field of sulfur rocks, the latest discoveries on Mars and amazing photos
As the rover ascends, it moves along the Martian timeline, allowing scientists to study how Mars evolved from a planet that was more like Earth in the distant past, with a warmer climate and abundant water, to the icy desert it is today. The amount of frost on Mars’ equatorial volcanoes represents about 150,000 tons of water exchanged between the surface and the atmosphere every day during the cold season, equivalent to about 60 Olympic swimming pools. NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered crystals of pure sulfur on Mars.
Martian Phobos and Deimos Hide the Secret of Their Origin
For years, researchers have puzzled over the origins of Phobos and its twin, Deimos. Some have suggested that the moons are former asteroids attracted by Mars’ gravity, as their chemical composition is similar to that of some rocks in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, computer models simulating this capture process have failed to reproduce the pair’s nearly circular paths around Mars. Another hypothesis suggests that a giant impact, similar to the one that created our Moon, ejected the duo from the Red Planet; however, Phobos has a different chemical composition than Mars, making this scenario unlikely.
Gravity and life: new discoveries
Scientists have found geological evidence that the gravitational interaction between Mars and Earth is driving the 2.4-million-year deep-sea circulation cycle and global warming. What happens if the moon disappears? Stars can strip entire planets of their atmospheres. Discovery of retrograde orbits.
Moon race. Last news
Following the Artemis III mission, which lands the first humans near the lunar south pole, Artemis IV astronauts will live and work on humanity’s first lunar space station, Gateway, opening up new opportunities for science and preparation for human missions to Mars . The mission will combine the complex choreography of multiple launches and dockings of spacecraft in lunar orbit, and will also mark the debut of a larger, more powerful version of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and a new mobile launcher.
Features of the landscape on Mars – new discoveries
Olympus Mons is one of a dozen large volcanoes, many of which are ten to a hundred times taller than their Earthly counterparts. If Martian space tourism takes off in the coming decades, Olympus Mons could become a prime destination for adventure enthusiasts. Olympus may once have been a volcanic island surrounded by an ocean nearly 4 miles (6 km) deep, according to geological evidence found in the high cliffs. Another new study found that the rover discovered polygonal wedges 35 kilometers underground – the first time they have been discovered beneath the planet’s surface. Evidence suggests that the wedges formed between 3.7 and 2.9 billion years ago due to major climate changes in Mars’ past. The Mars Express orbiter has discovered enough water ice buried beneath the Red Planet’s equator to cover the entire planet in a shallow ocean if it melted.
NASA’s Perseverance rover confirms the presence of an ancient dry lake on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has confirmed the presence of an ancient lake on Mars that could hold the key to ancient life. Evidence of ancient lacustrine sediments at the base of Jezero Crater on Mars offers new hope for detecting traces of life in samples collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first Earth-based helicopter on Mars, has come to an end
Originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, the first off-planet vehicle operated on Mars for nearly three years, completed 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while recording more than two hours total flight time.
Researchers are studying layers of water ice on Mars
Mars appears to be a dry world now, but there are plenty of signs on the planet’s surface that there was once plenty of water, including dry river beds, ancient ocean and lake beds, and valleys carved by water. Significant reserves of water ice have also been discovered on Mars, such as huge polar ice caps, buried glaciers closer to the equator, and near-surface ice permeated by the Martian soil.
NASA has recognized the existence of life on Mars in the past and present
The goal of the NIAC project is to collect the necessary samples before human arrival on Mars, planned by NASA, the Chinese National Space Agency and SpaceX, by 2040, by 2033 and before 2030, respectively, according to the space agencies’ respective statements. Human arrival will undoubtedly complicate the search for indigenous Martian life, so from an astrobiological perspective, these planned manned missions to Mars have set a very strict timeline for the search for life on pristine Mars.
The era of liquid water on Mars ended three billion years ago
Chinese scientists have concluded that groundwater on Mars under the Utopia Planitia remained active until the Amazonian (recent) period of the geological history of the Red Planet, which was previously considered cold and dry. In sedimentary deposits of Amazonian age, Zhuzhong instruments identified hydrated sulfates, hydrosilica, ferric oxides and chlorides. These minerals require liquid salt water to form.
Mars has its own aurora
A Mars probe has discovered that the Red Planet’s atmosphere glows green at night. Scientists have observed the night glow of Mars in the visible light spectrum for the first time, the European Space Agency reports.
Mars exploration: China gains insights from its first rover
The team of China’s first Mars rover, Zhurong, published the results of an analysis of data collected on Utopia Planitia in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Far-reaching plans – terraforming Mars
The main problem for changing the appearance of Mars is the lack of a strong magnetic field that can protect the atmosphere from solar winds that burn water in it. The magnetic field creates a kind of bubble that protects the planet from the oncoming solar winds. For example, the Earth’s magnetic field prevents most high-energy particles from reaching the planet’s surface.
Russian-European orbital module found new evidence of the existence of water on Mars
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered signs and minerals in the craters of Mars that suggest that there was once water there, the Roscosmos press service reports.
The modern landscape on Mars was formed by major floods, and there is still oxygen in the atmosphere
The composition of the rock on Mars indicates volcanic activity, the presence of bodies of water, primitive organisms and a stable environment for the origin of life in the past.
China conquers Mars
The Chinese Tianwen-1 spacecraft with the Zhuzhong rover carried out a successful soft landing on the surface of Mars, Xinhua news agency reported. The Chinese Mars rover “Zhuzhong” successfully descended from the platform and began exploring Mars.
Elon Musk will take part in the conquest of Mars
The head of SpaceX and Tesla did not rule out that the conquest of Mars would require human sacrifice.
Volcanic activity on Mars prevents water from completely evaporating
Seismic activity on Mars indicates tectonic activity that is similar to that on Earth. The NASA InSight probe detected earthquakes on Mars with an amplitude of up to 4 points.
Water evaporating from Mars remains on its surface in the form of hydrated minerals
Water on the surface of Mars is conserved in rocks. The cessation of tectonic activity on the Red Planet stopped the circulation of water from the atmosphere back to the surface.