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Angling up for Mars science![]() Paris (ESA) Feb 08, 2017 ESA's latest Mars orbiter has moved itself into a new path on its way to achieving the final orbit for probing the Red Planet. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter arrived last October on a multiyear mission to understand the tiny amounts of methane and other gases in the atmosphere that could be evidence for biological or geological activity. In January, it conducted a series of crucial manoeuvres, firing its main engine to adjust its orbit around Mars. The three firings shifted its angle of travel with ... read more |
Curiosity rover sharpens paradox of ancient MarsMars scientists are wrestling with a problem. Ample evidence says ancient Mars was sometimes wet, with water flowing and pooling on the planet's surface. Yet, the ancient sun was about one-third les ... more
Opportunity Takes Advantage of her Location to do a Mini Science CampaignOpportunity is located on the rim of Endeavour Crater, heading south. The rover is trying to make progress towards the next major scientific objective, the gully about a kilometer south of the ... more
'Curiosity' exposes low CO2 level in Mars' primitive atmosphereThe CO2 level in Mars' primitive atmosphere 3.5 billion years ago was too low for sediments, such as those found by NASA's Curiosity exploration vehicle in areas like the Gale Crater on the planet's ... more
UAE Aims to Launch Its First Ever Mars Mission in 2020The United Arab Emirates has set an ambitious goal of sending nation's first mission to Mars in 2020, launching its unmanned orbiter from Japan's space center. The unmanned orbiter Hope, desig ... more |
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UH research finds evidence of 2 billion years of volcanic activity on MarsAnalysis of a Martian meteorite found in Africa in 2012 has uncovered evidence of at least 2 billion years of volcanic activity on Mars. This confirms that some of the longest-lived volcanoes in the ... more
Swirling spirals at the north pole of MarsA new mosaic from ESA's Mars Express shows off the Red Planet's north polar ice cap and its distinctive dark spiralling troughs. The mosaic was generated from 32 individual orbit 'strips' captured b ... more
Similar-Looking Ridges on Mars Have Diverse OriginsThin, blade-like walls, some as tall as a 16-story building, dominate a previously undocumented network of intersecting ridges on Mars, found in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The s ... more
Meteorite reveals 2 billion years of volcanic activity on MarsMars may be home to some of the oldest volcanoes in the solar system. New evidence suggests the Red Planet has been home to volcanic activity for at least 2 billion years. ... more
Commercial Crew's Role in Path to MarsThe spacecraft, rockets and associated systems in development for NASA's Commercial Crew Program are critical links in the agency's chain to send astronauts safely to and from the Red Planet in the ... more
China looks to Mars, Jupiter explorationChina's plans for deep-space exploration included two Mars missions and one Jupiter probe. China plans its first Mars probe by 2020, said Wu Yanhua, vice director of the China National Space A ... more |
![]() Bursts of methane may have warmed early Mars
Opportunity marks 13 years of ground operations on MarsOpportunity celebrated her 13th birthday on Sol 4623 (January 24, 2017 PST). She spent it as she has most recent sols - heading south along the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is currently ... more
Long Eclipse Avoidance Manoeuvres Performed Successfully on MOM SpacecraftAn orbital manoeuvres was performed on Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft to avoid the impending long eclipse duration for the satellite. The duration of the eclipse would have been as long as 8 ... more
Microbes could survive thin air of MarsMicrobes that rank among the simplest and most ancient organisms on Earth could survive the extremely thin air of Mars, a new study finds. The Martian surface is presently cold and dry, but th ... more
Mars rover Opportunity takes a drive up a steep slopeOpportunity is located on the rim of Endeavour Crater, heading south along the rim. The rover is trying to make progress towards the next major scientific objective, the gully about a kilomete ... more |

The Moon may be peppered with oxygen transmitted by life on Earth, according to a scientific study, opening up the possibility that the Earth's atmosphere of billions of years ago may be preserved on the present-day lunar surface.
It has long been speculated that the Moon has been intermittently sprayed with the Earth's oxygen, with some researchers suggesting the nitrogen and noble gases ... more Private Space Race Heats Up, Moon Landing Expected in Late 2017 LunaH-Map CubeSat to map the Moon's water deposits India, Israel among five teams fighting for first private Moon landing |
China's plans for deep-space exploration included two Mars missions and one Jupiter probe.
China plans its first Mars probe by 2020, said Wu Yanhua, vice director of the China National Space Administration.
A second Mars probe will bring back samples and conduct research on the planet's structure, composition and environment, Wu said.
Also on the agenda are an asteroid explorat ... more China's first cargo spacecraft to leave factory China launches commercial rocket mission Kuaizhou-1A China Space Plan to Develop "Strength and Size" |
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This week, astronauts are unloading more than 5,000 pounds of cargo and crew supplies from the Cygnus spacecraft to support dozens of science and research investigations. However, this shipment has special significance. This shipment arrived via an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
Rocket launches to the International Space ... more Orbital cargo ship arrives at space station New Instrument on ISS to Study Ultra-Cold Quantum Gases Two Russians, one American blast off to ISS |
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft completed a short propulsive maneuver Wednesday to refine its track toward a New Year's Day 2019 flyby past 2014 MU69, a Kuiper Belt object (KBO) some 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) from Earth.
Telemetry confirming that the engine burn went as planned reached the New Horizons mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory ... more It's Never 'Groundhog Day' at Jupiter Public to Choose Jupiter Picture Sites for NASA Juno Experiment resolves mystery about wind flows on Jupiter |
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Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now in its "Ring-Grazing" orbits phase, is observing Saturn's dazzling rings of icy debris.
The views are some of the closest-ever images of the outer parts of the main rings, giving scientists an eagerly awaited opportunity to observe features with names like "straw" and "propellers."
Altho ... more Cassini captures stunning view of Saturn moon Daphnis Catching Cassini's call Huygens: 'Ground Truth' From an Alien Moon |
An international team has, for the first time, developed a way of combining anonymised data from mobile phones and satellite imagery data to create high resolution maps to measure poverty.
The researchers, led by WorldPop at the University of Southampton and the Flowminder Foundation, have worked with Telenor Research and mobile phone company Grameenphone to examine rates of poverty and it ... more NASA Taking Stock of Phytoplankton Populations in the Pacific Why the Earth's magnetic poles could be about to swap places An application of astronomy to save endangered species |
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Matthias Maurer, from Germany, has started his astronaut training as part of ESA's astronaut corps. Matthias was among the 10 finalists in 2009 selection, and is now undergoing basic training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is on the International Space Station and all the original class of 2009 have now flown in space. Matthias Maurer's n ... more The Outer Space Treaty has been remarkably successful - but is it fit for the modern age? Full Braking at Alpha Centauri New Era of Space Travel: Private Station May Replace ISS by Late 2020 |
When energy and nutrients abound, a bacterium will repair itself while synthesizing new parts to create a twin and then split, all as quickly as conditions allow. But if resources shrink, so does growth rate. The cell responds by shunting its dwindling supplies from replication to repair, shutting down processes until it's running a skeleton crew to survive. Below a crucial level, it's all over. ... more Dedicated Planet Imager Opens Its Eyes to Other Worlds New planet imager delivers first science at Keck First footage of a living stylodactylid shrimp filter-feeding at depth of 4826m |
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The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently demonstrated the capabilities of its SideArm, a device built to catch unmanned aircraft in flight.
In a test conducted by Aurora Flight Sciences in December 2016, the SideArm was used to catch a Lockheed Martin Fury unmanned aircraft system weighing 400 pounds. While DARPA aimed to create a device capable of catching 900-pound ... more U.S. Army orders counter-drone systems Schiebel to supply S-100 UAV for Australian navy SideArm prototype catches full-size unmanned aerial system flying at full speed |
Lunar eclipses are enjoyable celestial events that can be seen from a wide geographic area. But we haven't experienced a total lunar blackout since September 2015, and the next one won't come until January 31, 2018. In the meantime, skygazers can enjoy a special kind of lunar eclipse taking place on Friday night, February 10th. Instead of plunging into the dark inner core of Earth's shadow (call ... more NASA Scientist Studies Whether Solar Storms Cause Animal Beachings Eclipse 2017: NASA Supports a Unique Opportunity for Science in the Shadow New space weather model helps simulate magnetic structure of solar storms |
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A commercial launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket is planned for the beginning of April, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos Igor Komarov said.
Earlier, the engines of the second and third stages of the Proton-M carrier rockets were recalled at the Voronezh Mechanical Plant because of technical problems.
"We can say right now that the first launch ... the commercial launch of Prot ... more India to launch record 104 satellites next week ISRO tests C25 Cryogenic Upper Stage of GSLV MkIII Russia to call tender for 2nd Phase of Vostochny Spaceport construction in Fall |
A research group led by Hiroshima University has revealed a picture of the increasing fraction of massive star-forming galaxies in the distant universe. Massive star-forming galaxies in the distant universe, about 5 billion years ago, trace large-scale structure in the universe. In the nearby universe, about 3 billion years ago, massive star-forming galaxies are not apparent. This change in the ... more Mind the Gap: Rapid Burster behaviour explained Scientists Estimate Solar Nebula's Lifetime |
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Cosmologists trying to understand how to unite the two pillars of modern science - quantum physics and gravity - have found a new way to make robust predictions about the effect of quantum fluctuations on primordial density waves, ripples in the fabric of space and time.
Researchers from the University of Portsmouth have revealed quantum imprints left on cosmological structures in the very ... more China to set up gravitational wave telescopes in Tibet MIT researchers reveal new technique for measuring gravity A population of neutron stars can generate gravitational waves continuously |
Entropy, the measure of disorder in a physical system, is something that physicists understand well when systems are at equilibrium, meaning there's no external force throwing things out of kilter. But new research by Brown University physicists takes the idea of entropy out of its equilibrium comfort zone. The research, published in Physical Review Letters, describes an experiment in which the ... more Black Hole Meal Sets Record for Duration and Size Middleweight Black Hole Hiding in Giant Star Cluster Exploring the matter that filled the early universe |
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Why do humans build machines that resemble them - and what does that say about us? A London exhibition opening on Tuesday is surveying 500 years of simple to sophisticated robots to find out.
Take a lip-syncing monk from the 16th century or a cartoon-like humanoid avatar that helps children with autism today. They and 100 other robots on display at the Science Museum chart an evolution of m ... more Switzerland orders Protector remote weapon stations Transparent gel-based robots can catch and release live fish MIT's wearable AI system can detect a conversation's tone |
China's plans for deep-space exploration included two Mars missions and one Jupiter probe.
China plans its first Mars probe by 2020, said Wu Yanhua, vice director of the China National Space Administration.
A second Mars probe will bring back samples and conduct research on the planet's structure, composition and environment, Wu said.
Also on the agenda are an asteroid explorat ... more China's first cargo spacecraft to leave factory China launches commercial rocket mission Kuaizhou-1A China Space Plan to Develop "Strength and Size" |
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