View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe, caught the waning moon, Mars, and a flock of whistling ducks at dawn on August 9, 2020. He wrote, the waning gibbous moon and Mars were close together high in the northern dawn sky. Several pictures of the pair were taken as daylight approached between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Just before it became too light for Mars to remain visible, a flock of whistling ducks passed by in bow and arrow formation! Thank you, Peter!

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View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Helio de Carvalho Vital wrote from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that he captured the occultation of Mars by the moon an event in which the moon temporarily covered Mars on August 9, 2020. He wrote, A Nikon CoolPix P900 camera on a tripod was the only equipment I used The photo shows the planet approaching the moon`s lighted limb some seconds before ingress. At that moment, relative to Mars, the moon was 224 times closer and about 7 thousand times brighter. Thank you, Helio!

April Singer in northern New Mexico caught the moon and Mars Saturday night around midnight, when the pair had just risen and was low in the eastern sky. Thanks, April!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dennis Chabot in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, captured this image of Mars early Sunday morning, August 9, 2020. At that time, the moon and red planet were high in the dawn sky, not far from the famous tip of the V in the constellation Pisces the Fish. Dennis wrote: Fiery Mars above the moon this morning just before the fog rolled in to fill the skies with gray. Thank you, Dennis!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aurelian Neacsu in Visina, Dambovita, Romania, captured this telescopic image of Mars on August 5, 2020. The white dot on the planet is its icy pole. Thank you, Aurelian!

Bottom line: Photos from the EarthSky community showing the August 2020 waning gibbous moon near the red planet Mars.

See the original post here:

See it! This weekends moon and Mars - EarthSky

Channels on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (left) are superimposed with channels in Mars Maumee Valles region (right) Credit: Cal-Tech CTX mosaic/ MAXAR/Esri/ UBC.

For the last 40 years, since the valleys of Mars were firstdiscovered, the assumption has been that precipitation and surface water runofffueled rivers that once flowed on Mars, eroding the landscape and forming allof these valleys. But there are dozens of valley networks on Mars and thousandsof valley systems, and they look very different from each other. If you look atEarth from a satellite, you see a lot of valleys as well: some of them made by rivers, some made byglaciers, some made by other processes, and each type has a distinctive shape. Marsis similar, in that its valleys look very different from each other, suggestingthat different processes acted to carve them.

According to new research led by Anna Grau Galofre at the University of Brithish Columbia, a large number of the valley networks scarring Mars surface, especially in the southern highlands, were carved by water melting beneath glacial ice, not solely by free-flowing rivers as previously thought. The similarity between many martian valleys and the subglacial channels on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic motivated the authors to conduct their comparative study. They analyzed more than 10,000 martian valleys using a novel algorithm to infer the underlying erosion processes acting to form these valleys. Results of this analysis provide strong evidence for extensive subglacial erosion driven by channelized meltwater drainage beneath an ancient ice sheet on Mars. These findings help explain how the valleys could have formed 3.8 billion years ago on a planet that is further away from the Sun than Earth, during a time when the Sun was less intense. Climate modeling suggests that Mars ancient climate was much cooler during the time of valley network formation. Interestingly, these environments could also provide better survival conditions for possible ancient life on Mars. A sheet of ice would lend more protection and stability to underlying liquid water, as well as provide shelter from solar radiation. READ MORE

See more here:

Subglacial Runoff Helped Carve the Valley Networks on Early Mars - Planetary News

On July 30, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover blasted off for its months-long journey to Earths rust-colored neighbor. On a mission to seek out microbial life on Mars, the rover is armed to the teeth with scientific instruments that can analyze the planets ancient climate and geology.

Cornell researchers were involved in the research, development and calibration of two of these instruments specifically designed to find traces of life on Mars: Mastcam-Z, and a subsurface radar called RIMFAX.

Experts are fairly certain that life does not currently exist on the planet. However, Megan Barrington, a Ph.D. student in the earth and atmospheric sciences department, said that the Jezero Crater landing site could have potentially harbored life within the past several billion years.

The crater, which once hosted an ancient lake filled with water, has specific key features that support this hypothesis, such as highly preserved clay deposits that could store signatures of past life. Perseverance will seek out these signatures once it lands on Feb. 18, 2021.

Barrington, a fieldwork scientist, documentarian and camera technician for experiments relating to Mastcam-Z, described the instrument as the eyes of the rover. The camera is extremely important for the mission, as it provides panoramic color images of the landing site and more intricate data on geology and mineral composition. Barrington further explained that the instruments zoom capabilities make it the first of its kind to land on Mars.

Cornellians from the astronomy and earth and atmospheric sciences departments were responsible for calibrating the Mastcam-Z cameras a feat in and of itself.

Mastcam-Z, our instrument, required a lot of technical calibration for us to know exactly what well be looking at when an image comes back to us from the surface of Mars, Barrington said. In order to calibrate these cameras, weve spent multiple weeks of many 12 to 14 hour days, with teams the size of several hundred people, to quantify all of the parameters of our camera.

One essential aspect of calibration was the positioning of the cameras filters. Mastcam-Z can perceive wavelengths between 400 and 1000 nm on the electromagnetic spectrum, with each filter allowing in a smaller range of wavelengths, according to Barrington.

Calibration allows for the cameras to accurately and precisely determine the chemical composition of rocks in the Jezero Crater by collecting data on the distinct spectrum of wavelengths associated with the minerals of each rock.

The calibration of Mastcam-Z had to take place in a clean room, an environment free of biological contaminants to protect the delicate instrumentation during the camera experiments.

Barrington said she was thrilled to be a part of this clean room calibration process.

Knowing that you get to be so close to this instrument that is going to change the geologic knowledge of Mars thats amazing to me, Barrington said. So that was a real treat, and its something that most members of the team dont get to do.

Barrington also participated in pre-landing training missions, which involved traveling to sites on Earth that have a mineralogy and geologic history similar to Jezero Crater. During these mock missions, Barrington and hundreds of other science team members from universities across the nation conducted experimentation using instruments that behaved like those of the actual rover.

One of these instruments Barrington worked with was the Mastcam-Z Analog Spectral Imager, developed by Cornell astronomy graduate student Christian Tate.

[Ive been] learning about the strengths and weaknesses of our cameraand any potential issues we might run into on the way so that we can fully understand what to expect when we start to use Mastcam-Z at Jezero Crater, Barrington said. No one wants to be surprised by anything on the first day that we land we want to know as much ahead of time as possible.

Besides Mastcam-Z, a substantial team of scientists scattered across the globe worked on another one of Perseverances instruments called RIMFAX, or Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment. One of these scientists is Cornell principal researcher Michael Mellon.

Mellon said that this radar directs radio waves downward into the subsurface of Mars and captures reflections of the radio waves as they bounce off of the underground layers back toward the surface.

These reflections can occur every time the radio wave encounters a transition in the subsurface layers, such as a change in density between soil and rock, or a change in material between rock minerals and water ice.

According to Mellon, RIMFAX will send out pulses of radio waves for every four inches the rover moves as the Perseverance traverses the terrain of Jezero Crater.

The instrument will also measure the time interval between the initial pulse of radio waves and the returned reflection, which can help scientists determine the stratigraphy at the landing site a two-dimensional profile of rock layers beneath the surface.

Were going to be able to probe into those sediments [of Jezero Crater] and look for those layered structures in the subsurface, and so we can kind of help paint a picture of what the geologic history of the area was, Mellon said.

Understanding the geologic history of Mars is crucial to determining whether the planet was habitable for early life a question scientists have been trying to answer for decades.

The history of the climate, the history of geology and the potential for life are all tied together. Its often cited that theres a common theme between them, which is water, Mellon said. Water leaves a signature on the geologic record, and water is intimately tied to the climate and water is the necessary ingredient for life.

Mellon specifically researched the structure of soil on Mars, as well as the relationship between the geologic history of water ice and climate. Mellons research helped define important questions, such as how deep the radar should penetrate and what it should be looking for, informing the engineering requirements of the instrument.

Because of this, RIMFAX will be able to make useful measurements of subsurface structures that could indicate the presence of ice in the past, along with other key parameters.

In preparation for Perseverances landing, both Mellon and Barrington will be training for, practicing and refining the procedures involved in the post-landing operation of their respective instruments. This will require the collaboration of the entire science teams behind each instrument, allowing for smoother coordination once operation of the rover actually begins in six months.

Despite the long road ahead of her, Barrington said it was a gratifying experience to work on Perseverance.

Its been a total dream experience, Barrington said. Coming here and participating in the project for Mastcam Z and the Mars 2020 [mission] has been so very exciting and fulfilling, and Ive never been prouder of the work that I do.

More here:

The Red Planet Gets a Little Redder: Cornellians Work on Instruments for Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Earth, the Moon and Mars come into alignment this weekend.

So far this summer has been all about super-bright Jupiter and, just 8 away, ringed planet Saturn, which have been dominating the southwestern night sky after dark.

This weekend its the turn of Mars, as the waning Moon passes close to the red planet. Three spacecraft are on their way to Mars right now, and its also a great time to admire it.

Mars is now creeping towards opposition in October, the point in its orbit when its closest to Earth, so as big and bright as it gets. Its already getting visibly bigger and brighter with every passing night.

Mars is rising earlier each evening, and this weekend is now in the sky before midnight, with a 65% illuminated waning gibbous Moon in tow.

Stargazers call this eventwhen two celestial bodies appear to pass close to each othera conjunction.

Look to the east around midnight on Saturday going into Sunday and youll easily find a waning gibbous Moon.

Only those in North America will see the closest conjunction, at around 4:00 a.m. EDT on the morning of Sunday, August 9.

The Moon will be close to Mars on Saturday night through Sunday morning.

You could even try to catch the Moon at moonrisethe most beautiful time to observe our satelliteby consulting this Moon calculator to get times for your exact location.

In doing so youll also witness a Mars-rise.

Just 0.8 north of the Moon will be Mars, shining at magnitude -1.3. Thats significantly brighter than any stars, so Mars will be obvious.

The conjunction of two of the night skys top sights isnt that rare, but there are few more pleasing celestial sights to unaided naked eyes than a big Moon passing a bright, red planet.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

The rest is here:

Mars And The Moon Will Align This Weekend. Heres When And Where You Can See Them Rise Together - Forbes

Every once in a while, we find an idea that maybe didnt get enough praise at the time it arose, or purely and simply, it has sparked a whole new genre of vehicles that we just aren't able to manifest yet. I feel this may be the case with the Peugeot XRC.

Now personally, I'm just an adult sized kid, so when I first saw the XRC my eyes lit up. Now, I didnt go fully bonkers, but parts of my childhood did flash before my eyes. It first reminded me of a sci-fi F1 car, or simply the way I saw F1 cars on TV. The next childhood scene that I witnessed was me playing with my old RC cars.

This later vision would prove to be much closer to the truth behind the design than I may have imagined at the time. Upon researching this concept, I found out that the original design for the XRC was made exactly with the idea of an adult-sized RC car. The design of the XRC is one destined for desert rallies and off-road terrain. It sure as hell looks like it, no doubt about that.

The design is a futuristic speed demon. I could very well see this in the next Mars movie. You know, the one about racing on different planets. Seriously just have a look again in the gallery. Notice the huge knobs on the front and back tires. Where have you seen a similar design? On Mars rovers. And it makes sense that all terrain wheels would look something like rover wheels - they're made to tackle unknown and unexpected terrains.

The body is reminiscent of F1 cars. The front dips low, real low, and the only real rise in the frame is caused by the driver pod. Speaking of driver pods, this design only allows one driver at a time. Once the windshield breaks the low body design, it continues to the back, offering a very aerodynamic look that really pulls the eyes in. The sides of the XRC run low and along the driver pod front the front all the way to the back.

That axel leads to two arms that hold the double-wide wheels in place. The rear tires are also twice as wide as the front tires and about 1/6 larger. This further lifts the vehicles rear and pushes the nose of the car into the ground. At the front two shorter arms are designed directly into the chassis and seem to eliminate the suspension, or we simply cannot see the same suspension set-up as on the back. If thats true, then the suspension for the front should be built right into the arms.

The driving and steering mechanism for the Peugeot seems to be one based on a static wheel upon which the tires rotate, much like a magnetic propulsion system, or like the drivetrain on the Nawa Racer.

The cockpit of the XRC opens forward to allow the driver to step in all futuristic like. OOO, I just can't wait to see a movie with these things.

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Mars Racer XRC Branded Peugeot - I Bet Matt Damon Wished He had One in Mars - autoevolution

Drake is rumoured to be collaborating with Bruno Mars for the first single from his upcoming new album.

The Toronto rapper is putting the finishing touches to his next studio album, which will follow on from 2018s Scorpion. He dropped the Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape back in May, and previously said that his next studio album will be released this summer.

A new report on OnSMASH has now claimed that Drake will partner with Mars for the first single from his next album, which is reportedly titled Skeleton King. The song could be released as soon as this week, with a potential release date of this Friday (August 14) being mooted.

An official release date and title for the new Drake album has yet to be announced. NME has reached out to representatives of both Drake and Bruno Mars for comment.

On July 28, Drakes engineer Noel Cadastre gave fans an update on the progress of the new album on Instagram, saying that it was 90% complete but that yall gonna have to wait on that last 10%.

Drake has collaborated with a number of high-profile artists in recent weeks, including Popcaan, Headie One and DJ Khaled.

The rest is here:

Drake rumoured to be collaborating with Bruno Mars on new single - NME

The UAEs Hope spacecraft remains healthy and is on the way to the Red Planet, according to a live tracking website by US space agency Nasa.

Communication with the Mars weather satellite, which lifted-off from Japan on July 20, is possible through massive antennas by Nasas Deep Space Network, located in three countries to provide a 24-hour coverage of the craft.

The spacecraft is expected to arrive to its desired Martian orbit in February and will remain there for two years, capturing data so scientists can study the dynamic weather conditions of the planet.

During this mission, the satellite will be sending data to one of the antennas in Canberra in Australia, Madrid in Spain or Goldstone, California.

The data, or telemetry, is then sent to Emirati engineers at the mission control centre at Dubais Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

However, anyone can track the status of deep space missions that use Nasas network.

The National explains how you can follow UAEs Hope probes journey live.

A Nasa website shows all deep space missions, which use the Deep Space Network, sending telemetry in real time.

The live feed helps show the status of the spacecraft, including its range, frequency, and power levels of radio transmissions, as well as the speed in which the craft is sending data.

Currently, there are 10 active deep space missions that the network is tracking, including the Emirates Mars Mission.

The steerable and high-gain antennas were strategically installed in three countries so Nasa can stay in contact with a spacecraft around the clock as the Earth rotates.

As of late Sunday, 11.30pm, UAEs spacecraft was sending telemetry to the antenna in Canberra, Australia. An hour later, Madrid was looking after it.

The satellite remains in good health and was sending data at a healthy rate and frequency.

The range figure, which tells the distance travelled so far, is not available while it is for the nine other missions the network is tracking. This could be because the Hope Mars Mission team requested Nasa to hide that figure publicly.

Within two days of the launch, the probe had travelled a million kilometres from Earth. By July 27, a distance of 2.47million kms was travelled.

At that rate, it is likely the spacecraft has already voyaged more than seven million kms. The remaining cruising distance, in this case, would be 486.5 million kms.

In the live feed, the public can see if and when a spacecraft is sending data, which antennas are communicating with the crafts, as well as the speed, power and rate being used to send and receive telemetry.

However, the network does more behind the scenes, such as acquiring, processing, decoding and distributing data to mission control rooms in different parts of the world.

Mission operations team, including the UAE Mars Mission engineers, use the Deep Space Network Command System to control the spacecrafts activities.

During an exclusive visit to the ground control room last month, The National learnt that Emirati engineers already have a series of commands prepared for the Hope probe during its 200-day journey to Mars.

They are working in 24-hour shifts at the mission control room until August 20 to ensure the spacecraft is cruising in the correct route.

The long-distance calls are smooth so far, but as the Hope probe travels further away from Earth, there will be a communication delay between it and the ground control team.

The signals from the spacecraft are received within seconds as of now, however, that time frame will be increased to minutes in the next few weeks.

When it reaches Mars, there will be at least a 15-minute delay.

If you dont want to wait until the Hope probe becomes live on the website next, there are a few Twitter accounts that post each time the spacecraft sends telemetry.

One of the most active ones is the Dsn_Status account, an unofficial version of the network.

Updated: August 10, 2020 03:01 PM

Read the rest here:

UAE Mars Mission: how to track Hope probe in real time - The National

You're in for a veritable stargazing feast over the next several days.On Saturday, Mars and the moon will form a dazzling conjunction overnight, which you can think of as sort of an appetizer beforethe Perseid meteor shower's spectacular peak early next week, the main course. You're gonna want to enjoy both.

On the night of August 8 into the morning of August 9, Mars and the moon will appear to violate social distancing rules in the sky. You'll have to stay up late in order to spot the pair, but that shouldn't be much of a problem on a warm weekend night in the middle of summer. The stargazing spectacle, known as a conjunction, will only get better as the night turns into the early hours of the morning. Should you find yourself with clear skies (definitely check the weather before you head out), you'll likely also be rewarded with a few meteor sightings as the aforementioned Perseids shower nears its peak. Venus will also be hanging around.

Head outside and direct your attention to the East around midnight and you may be able to spot the red planet in the vicinity of a waning gibbous moon, weather permitting, according to EarthSky. The pair will appear to travel together (to be clear, they're still millions of miles apart) westward across the sky before peaking at their highest point together around dawn. Like with viewing anything in the sky at night, you'll want to get away from the bright lights of the city and suburbs for the best results, though you'll still be able to see the two through light pollution. You'll also want to give your eyes some time to adjust -- 30 minutes should do the trick -- once you've found your spot.

If you have any trouble locating Mars, I recommend turning to a stargazing mobile app like Night Sky, which will label the stars, planets, and more as you point your phone at the night sky. Then again, Mars is set to look brighter and brighter every night this month and next ahead of reaching opposition, when Earth passes between it and the sun in October, its brightest. In other words, if you haven't been watching Mars yet this summer, the conjunction with the moon marks the perfect time to start.

View original post here:

Mars and the Moon Will Align in the Sky Tonight. Here's When & How to See Them. - Thrillist

Earth on the left, Mars on the right. Left, the glacier-cut channels on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. Right, channels of unknown origin in Mars Maumee Valles region. Mars channels might have been cut by rivers, or as in Earths Arctic they might have been formed by meltwater under glaciers. Image via Cal-Tech CTX mosaic/ MAXAR/Esri/ UBC.

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Thanks to orbiting spacecraft, weve now seen thousands of channels on Mars. They look like river channels, and most Mars researchers see them as evidence of a warmer, wetter Mars in the distant past. But, in early August 2020, Mars researchers announced that many of the channels werent carved by flowing river water at all. Instead, these scientists claim, the channels are due to the flow of meltwater beneath glacial ice sheets that crawled over Mars surface long ago.

The researchers are from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Western University (Western) and Arizona State University (ASU). Their peer-reviewed findings were published in Nature Geoscience on August 3, 2020.

From the paper:

The southern highlands of Mars are dissected by hundreds of valley networks, which are evidence that water once sculpted the surface. Characterizing the mechanisms of valley incision may constrain early Mars climate and the search for ancient life. Previous interpretations of the geological record require precipitation and surface water runoff to form the valley networks, in contradiction with climate simulations that predict a cold, icy ancient Mars. Here we present a global comparative study of valley network morphometry, using a principal-component-based analysis with physical models of fluvial, groundwater sapping and glacial and subglacial erosion. We found that valley formation involved all these processes, but that subglacial and fluvial erosion are the predominant mechanisms. This is supported by predictions from models of steady-state erosion and geomorphological comparisons to terrestrial analogues. The inference of subglacial channels among the valley networks supports the presence of ice sheets that covered the southern highlands during the time of valley network emplacement.

If the researchers are right, their conclusions would seem to pour cold water, literally, on the idea that Mars was warm and wet enough early in its history for flowing rivers, rain and oceans. So how did they determine that not all river channels on Mars were really made by rivers?

The Devon Island ice cap in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which is probably similar to how much of Mars looked when meltwater formed channels beneath ice sheets, according to the researchers. Image via Anna Grau Galofre/ UBC.

These scientists developed new techniques to study Mars channel formations. Over 10,000 Mars channels were studied, and they were thencompared to the subglacial channels on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The researchers found a number of striking similarities. Anna Grau Galofre, formerly at UBC and now at ASU, and lead author of the study, stated:

For the last 40 years, since Mars valleys were first discovered, the assumption was that rivers once flowed on Mars, eroding and originating all of these valleys. But there are hundreds of valleys on Mars, and they look very different from each other. If you look at Earth from a satellite you see a lot of valleys: some of them made by rivers, some made by glaciers, some made by other processes, and each type has a distinctive shape. Mars is similar, in that valleys look very different from each other, suggesting that many processes were at play to carve them.

Many of the Martian channels resembled the ones in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. So what does that tell scientists about Mars history? It would imply that those channels formed under cold, not warm conditions. Co-author Gordon Osinski at Western said:

Devon Island is one of the best analogs we have for Mars here on Earth; it is a cold, dry, polar desert, and the glaciation is largely cold-based.

Our study challenges the widely held view that most valley networks on Mars were formed by rivers fed by precipitation. While we found evidence consistent with a small handful of valley networks having formed in this way, our observations suggest that the majority formed beneath ice sheets.

Study co-author Mark Jellinek of UBC looking towards the Devon Island ice cap. The rocks he is standing on are more than a million years old. Image via Anna Grau Galofre/ UBC.

These channels were most likely formed beneath glacial ice sheets, by meltwater underneath the ice. The same process happens beneath glaciers on Earth. As co-author Mark Jellinek at UBC explained:

These results are the first evidence for extensive subglacial erosion driven by channelized meltwater drainage beneath an ancient ice sheet on Mars. The findings demonstrate that only a fraction of valley networks match patterns typical of surface water erosion, which is in marked contrast to the conventional view. Using the geomorphology of Mars surface to rigorously reconstruct the character and evolution of the planet in a statistically meaningful way is, frankly, revolutionary.

The history of water on Mars and the warm and wet versus cold and wet scenarios have been the subjects of intense debate. We do know there used to be lakes on the surface, thanks to evidence from orbiting spacecraft and rovers such as Opportunity and Curiosity. But were the conditions warm or cold? Was there rain? Were there oceans? It should be noted that these new findings explain many of the channels, but others are still considered to be actual river channels. But then how and when did they form? NASAs Perseverance rover will be landing at the location of one of these channels in February 2021, where a once-flowing river emptied into Jezero Crater and formed a striking delta that can still be easily seen today.

An ancient river delta in Jezero Crater on Mars (enhanced color). If the researchers are right, most of the river channels on Mars were actually formed by meltwater beneath ice sheets and not flowing water on the surface. But others are known to have been formed by flowing water, such as the channel that cut into the edge of the crater and created the delta. This is where NASAs Perseverance rover will be landing in February 2021 to search for evidence of ancient life. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ ASU.

The subglacial channels fit with current climate models of Mars, which state that the planet should have been cooler when they formed about 3.8 billion years ago. This is due to the younger sun being less intense than it is now. Grau Galofre said:

Climate modeling predicts that Mars ancient climate was much cooler during the time of valley network formation. We tried to put everything together and bring up a hypothesis that hadnt really been considered: that channels and valley networks can form under ice sheets, as part of the drainage system that forms naturally under an ice sheet when theres water accumulated at the base.

While the concept of a colder and icier Mars instead of a warmer and wetter Mars may not sound as appealing for those hoping to find life, the new findings may actually bolster the chances of life having existed at the time. The researchers say that these regions of glacial meltwater would have provided better survival conditions. The ice sheets would have helped to protect and stabilize the water and provide shelter from solar radiation from the sun. The planets magnetic field, which protected it from the radiation, may have already disappeared by the time the glacial meltwater existed.

The new techniques developed by the researchers can also be used to learn more about the early history of Earth as well. Jellinek said:

Currently we can reconstruct rigorously the history of global glaciation on Earth going back about a million to five million years. Annas work will enable us to explore the advance and retreat of ice sheets back to at least 35 million years ago to the beginnings of Antarctica, or earlier back in time well before the age of our oldest ice cores. These are very elegant analytical tools.

Anna Grau Galofre of UBC and ASU, lead author of the new study. Image via UBC.

If many of Mars river channels were actually formed by water from melting ice and not flowing surface water, that will provide more clues as to how much water Mars had in the past and how habitable the planet was a few billion years ago. And, even though this scenario may not seem as exciting as a warmer world covered with rivers, it could still have been quite habitable for tiny Martian microbes. Given other evidence for actual rivers, lakes and possibly even oceans, perhaps there were colder periods alternating with warmer ones? We still dont know for sure, but the story of water on Mars is a fascinating and complicated one.

Bottom line: Many of Mars ancient river channels, thought to have been carved by flowing surface water, might have actually been formed by meltwater beneath glacial ice sheets.

Source: Valley formation on early Mars by subglacial and fluvial erosion

Via UBC

Via Western

Via ASU

See the rest here:

Could ice sheets, not rivers, have formed the channels on Mars? - EarthSky

Photo used for illustratrative purposes.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The UAE's Hope Mars Mission will search for connections between todays Martian weather and its ancient climate.

It hopes to become the first expedition to provide a complete picture of the planets atmosphere. The probe will orbit Mars from February 2021.

One of the major objectives of the Emirates Mars Mission Hope Probe is to find out how the Martian lower atmosphere responds globally, diurnally, and seasonally to solar forcing. The instruments that will used are:

Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer (EMIRS)

Emirates eXploration image (EXI)

Purpose of Experiment

Understand the processes that are driving the global circulation in the current Martian climate.

Determine the geographic and diurnal distribution of key constituents in the lower atmosphere of Mars on sub-seasonal time-scales

The Emirates Mars Mission "Hope Probe" will reveal many of the red planet's secrets, which could assist in setting up a human outpost on the planet in the future.

Determine the abundance and spatial variability of the key neutral species in the thermosphere on sub-seasonal timescales. The instruments used:

Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS)

The Process

Determine the column abundance and spatial variability of oxygen, and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.

Read this article:

VIDEO: Hope Probe reveals atmosphere of Mars - Gulf Today

This years annual robot design competition was not only a milestone as the event reached its 30th year, but it was also the first competition to be hosted online.

The event, which is usually held in person, is the much-anticipated finale of Dalhousie engineering students ECED 3901 course. Engineering Professor Vincent Sieben acted quickly to pivot the in-person curriculum and robot competition to a digital format to keep staff safe and student experience and engagement high while learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When speaking about the three to four weeks it took to re-jig the course to fit distanced learning, Dr. Sieben said, This was a monumental feat that I couldnt do without my fellow colleagues, and I couldnt have asked for a better group of people to carry this course across the finish line.

Bringing this competition to a virtual format is a great example of how faculty and staff have worked to adapt teaching and learning opportunities to the changed environment resulting from a global pandemic.

The 113 students in the course, spanning across Canada, China and even the Bahamas came together to form 37 teams. They worked hard and collaborated digitally over the semester to get their robots ready to compete in the autonomous robot challenge simulating farming on Mars.

Dr. Sieben enjoyed the unique opportunities and challenges to run labs out of students homes.

The design competition features automated robots, coded by undergraduate electrical and computer engineering students. Students coded their robots to cover an area, like mowing the lawn, while avoiding placed obstacles in the form of Martians. This had to be done with autonomous movement, meaning that all the coding happened before the event and the robots had to be capable of avoiding unknown, and unpredictable obstacles.

Using Raspberry Pi kits allowed students to simulate the robot code in their homes utilizing Gazebo and the Robot Operating System (ROS). The students then attempted their simulated code on real robots throughout the term with progressively more difficult tasks leading up to the final competition. This code was then provided to the professor and lab staff and the students told the staff what they wanted done.

Dr. Sieben says, We were the hands acting on behalf of the students' brains.

The day of the event, the students took turns competing to see who would come out on top. Not only were the students and professors watching the robot design competition, but anyone could join the livestream of the event. Throughout the day family, friends, and robot enthusiasts were able to pop in and out of the livestream.

Want to get a taste of the competition for yourself? You can watch a video of snippets from the labs and competition below.

A record number of successful attempts were set in this 30th year of the competition, with 31 out of the 37 teams completing the obstacle course.

The winning robot design went to Team 4 with students, Gabriel Burchat, Brad Jones, and Yang Lu as the minds behind BYGbot, which was named using the initials of the teammates.

Gabriel Burchat weighed in on his experience, saying, My team and I had a blast doing this term project. It wasnt the hands-on nature that we heard so much about because of the quarantine, so we didnt know what to expect. The course design was extraordinary. I wouldn't have wanted to do this semester any other way. Dr. Sieben made us excited for the project in a way that reinvigorated our enthusiasm for the semester.

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Mission to Mars: Robotics competition goes virtual in 30th year - Dal News

A full moon rises seen from Hirzel, Switzerland.

Each Monday I pick out the northern hemispheres celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy and eclipses.

This week begins with Mondays full Moonvariously known as the Sturgeon Moon, Red Moon and Grain Moon, among many other names. Whatever its called, its rise and set when full will take place close to sunset and sunrise, respectively.

In a clear sky it will look glorious.

So too will a waning full Moons assault on Mars later this week when, on Saturday and Sunday, it gets to within a 0.8 of the red planet. Thats what stargazers call an occultation. Thursday will also see Mars at perihelionthe closest it gets to the Sun in 2020and theres a chance to see Venus and Mercury.

This is also a great week to find the beautiful constellation of Delphinus, the Dolphin, close to the cant-miss-it Summer Triangle. All is explained, timed and mapped below.

The Delphinus (Dolphin) constellation.

Augusts full moon will occur at 15:59 UTCthats 16:59 BST, 17:59 CEST, 11:59 EDT and 08:59 PDT. However, to appreciate it you should ignore those times and instead make a plan to watch it rise above the eastern horizon tonight after sunset. Only then will you see it rise as a briefly spectacular orangey orb.

Known as the Sturgeon Moon by some Native American tribes and as the Grain Moon in the UK, Augusts full Moon will be visible all night, and hang relatively low in the night sky.

However, the rise of the full Moon takes place at a very specific time according to your location, so do check for the exact time of moonrise where you are and set aside 30 minutes from that rise time to observe. Be patient! It will appear ... unless clouds do first.

Mars is also at perihelion todaythe point in its orbit when it gets closest to the Sunwhich potentially triggers ferocious dust storms on the red planet.

How and when to see the Mars and the Moon in conjunction.

A waning, 73% illuminated waning gibbous Moon will tonight make a very close apparent approach to Mars. Look east around midnight (so early on Saturday). Only those in North America will see the closest conjunction, at around 4:00 a.m. EDT on the morning of Saturday, August 8.

However, everyone can catch the two Solar System bodies apparently close to each other in the east after sunset on Friday, before sunrise on Saturday, or after sunset on Saturday.

This morning its worth watching Venus and trying for Mercury before sunrise. If youve never seen the Solar Systems smallest planet with the unaided eye, look just before sunrise in a north-easterly direction through binoculars to find this tiny red dot of a world. Be careful not to point your binoculars at the Sun as it rises. Venus will be far easier to find above it.

How to find Delphinus, the dolphin, close to the "Summer Triangle" asterism in summer night skies.

One of the smallest constellations in the night sky, Delphinus, the Dolphin, isto my mindalso one of the most beautiful. Its in the constellation of Aquarius, but close to the much easier to find Summer Triangle. Best found in summer skies, Delphinus los a little like a dolphins, but more like a diamond.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

The rest is here:

Full Sturgeon Moon Sparkles Then Creeps Up On Mars: What To Watch For In The Night Sky This Week - Forbes

Why can't we watch live as NASA's latest rover descends and lands on Mars?

NASAs Perseverance rover is off to the red planet on the Mars 2020 spacecraft, successfully launching from Cape Canaveral on Thursday.

After its seven-month, 314 million mile journey it will land in Mars Jezero crater in February 18, 2021, but only after what its scientists call seven minutes of terror as the parachute unfurls and then the rover is lowered to the surface of Mars on a tether from its descent stage.

Why cant we watch those seven minutes of terror live on TV? Or get live streaming of Perseverances first views of Mars as soon as it opens it eyes?

We probably could do it today, but definitely not in HD, said Stephen Townes, Directorate Chief Technologist for the Interplanetary Network at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to me via email earlier this week.

Heres why live TV from Mars is difficult, impossible in high definition (HD), and how NASA has incredible plans to change that.

Using lasers.

First, we need to get straight the definition of live TV from another planet.

Were talking about something broadcast and sent back to us on Earth without first being stored. We think of seeing something live as seeing it in real-time as it is actually happening with no taped delay, said Townes. He explained that although there is very little transmission delay in Earth-based systems, there is a little delay between the Moon and Earth.

However, we would still regard the live broadcasts of the Apollo astronauts on the Moon as live. Live broadcasts from Mars are similarly possible, but with the same caveat. There will be a time delay in the reception of the live broadcast due to the distance between Mars and Earth, said Townes, citing one inarguable factorfundamental physics.

Orbital mechanics is everything here; Mars is currently getting closer to Earth, but by the time Perseverance lands it will be getting further from Earth. At its closest point, theres a 4 minute delay for radio signals to travel from Mars to Earth. At the most distant point, its 24 minutes. When Perseverance lands, it will be about 14 minutes.

NASA's Mars 2020 rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the planet's surface for ... [+] future missions to retrieve, as seen in this illustration.

Its not for a lack of cameras. The Perseverance rover and other parts of the Mars 2020 spacecraft feature an astonishing 23 cameras. Together theyll send us images of Mars in breathtaking detail, but the landing?

All well get is a pieced-together first person version of the spacecrafts descent after the fact, albeit in HD.

Perseverance will also be able to send data directly into NASAs Deep Space Network (DSN) antennae on Earth. However, at between 80 and 3,125 bits-per-second (b/s) to a 34m antenna or 800 and 15,625 b/s to a DSN 70m antenna, thats not going to cut it for HDTV.

HD (1080p) broadcasts require upwards of 8 megabits-per-second (Mb/s) and 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) over 57 Mb/s. So broadcasting TV pictures directly from Perseverance is a complete non-starter.

However, thats not the primary way of getting data back to Earth. Perseverance will be able to send data from the surface to a Mars orbiter at a maximum of 2 Mb/s, which will then relay it to Earth.Thats about the same bandwidth required for a stable stream from Netflix.

Once it is on the orbitersuch as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiterit can be sent to Earth at 500 kilobits-per-second (kb/s) up to 3 to 4 Mb/s depending upon distance between Mars and Earth, said Townes.

This artist's concept shows what Deep Space Station-23, a new antenna dish capable of supporting ... [+] both radio wave and laser communications, will look like when completed at the Deep Space Network's Goldstone, California, complex

So, yes, we canbut the quality would be very basic. Its not just about data rates, but the system used. For example, a rover can send back images, but pointing an antenna with any significant gain at Earth during the descent, with enough battery power for the transmitter, would be hard to achieve.

Youd also end up with a bits-per-second data rate, so the quality would be terrible.

A betterbut still trickyplan would be to have a rover send its video signal to an orbiter above it that can relay the images back to Earth. It has a similar rover antenna pointing challenges [but its a] better plan and has a chance of getting reasonable data rates, though HD is still challenging, said Townes.

A third option would be to have an orbiter with a huge camera that can be trained on the rover as it lands and simultaneously send that signal back to Earth.

For the latter two options to work, there would need to be a clear line of sight to Earth, but thats possible. Theres another bonus too. When we land on Mars, it is usually when Mars is at close range, so that helps, said Townes.

However, NASA has something up its sleeveits Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology.

Antenna dishes at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, California, photographed on Feb. ... [+] 11, 2020. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Its about upgrading from radio to optical communications, so using data encoded in photons and beamed over laser light. That vastly increases the data rate. Its a very significant step in demonstrating the viability of optical communication at Mars distances, said Townes. NASA has demonstrated optical communication of up to 622 Mb/s from the Moon, but Mars at close range is over 150 times farther away from Earth, which makes communicating from Mars 22,500 times harder.

With the DSOC flight terminal and the 5m Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain as a receiver, we expect to get on the order of 50 Mb/s at Mars close range equivalent, said Townes. With a larger ground telescope, say 10m diameter, we could support 200 Mb/s.

That data rate will reduce as Mars gets farther away from Earthand DSOC is, for now, too big for a Mars roverbut its a critical first step. The point is that moving to optical gives us the potential for much higher data rates, said Townes.

Perseverances seven minutes of terror will have to be endured alone this time, but in future Martian rovers, landers andin timecrewed spacecraft will be able to broadcast live from the red planet.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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Why Dont We Have Live Video From Mars? NASAs Jaw-Dropping Plans For Laser TV From The Red Planet - Forbes

View larger. | The Mars Express orbiter, which has been studying Mars for the past 16 years, captured these images of a strange, very elongated cloud on Mars on July 17 and 19, 2020. The cloud can reach up to 1,100 miles (1,800 km) in length. Image via ESA.

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For the past couple of years, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been keeping an eye on a mysteriously long, thin cloud that periodically shows up over Arsia Mons, the 12-mile-high (20-km-high) volcano on Mars.

In a July 29 statement, ESA said the cloud has appeared again, illustrated by the images above, acquired by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express on July 17 and 19, 2020.

Mars Express first noticed and photographed the cloud in September 2018. A recurrent feature, the cloud is made up of water and ice and can stretch for over 1,100 miles (1,800 km). Despite its location and appearance, scientists say its not a plume linked to volcanic activity. Instead, the curious stream forms as airflow, influenced by the volcanos leeward slope (the side that does not face the wind).

Jorge Hernndez-Bernal, at the University of the Basque Country (Spain), is leader of a team studying the cloud. He said in a statement:

We have been investigating this intriguing phenomenon and were expecting to see such a cloud form around now. This elongated cloud forms every Martian year during this season around the southern solstice, and repeats for 80 days or even more, following a rapid daily cycle. However, we dont know yet if the clouds are always quite this impressive.

A Martian day, or sol, is slightly longer than an Earth day at 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds long. A Martian year consists of 668 sols approximately 687 days so the seasons last for twice as long. The southern solstice is the period of the year when the sun is in the southernmost position in the Martian skies, just like the December 21-22 solstice here on Earth. In the early mornings during this period, this fleeting cloud grows for about three hours, quickly disappearing again just a few hours later.

Most spacecraft in orbit around Mars tend to observe in the Martian afternoon. However, Mars Express is in a position to gather and provide crucial information on this unique effect. Mars Express mission team member Eleni Ravanis works specifically for the VMC instrument. She said:

The extent of this huge cloud cant be seen if your camera only has a narrow field of view, or if youre only observing in the afternoon. Luckily for Mars Express, the highly elliptical orbit of the spacecraft, coupled with the wide field of view of the VMC instrument, lets us take pictures covering a wide area of the planet in the early morning. That means we can catch it!

The Mars Express science team has named the cloud the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, AMEC. So, how long has it been disappearing and reappearing? Why does it only form in the early morning? Scientists continue to investigate.

Bottom line: Images from the Mars Express spacecraft show that a mysteriously long, thin cloud has again appeared over the Arsia Mons volcano on Mars.

Via ESA

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Return of an extremely elongated cloud on Mars - EarthSky

SpaceX just flew a full-size prototype of its Starship Mars-colonizing spacecraft for the first time ever.

The Starship SN5 test vehicle took to the skies for about 40 seconds this afternoon (Aug. 4) at SpaceX's facilities near the South Texas village of Boca Chica, performing a small hop that could end up being a big step toward human exploration of the Red Planet.

"Mars is looking real," Musk tweeted shortly after today's test flight.

Related: SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy Mars rocket in pictures

The stainless-steel SN5 rose into the air at 7:57 p.m. EDT (2357 GMT; 6:57 p.m. local Texas time). It traveled sideways a bit during the brief, uncrewed flight, which Musk had previously said would target a maximum altitude of about 500 feet (150 meters). The spacecraft deployed its landing legs as planned and stuck the landing.

The SN5 is just the second Starship prototype to get off the ground, and the first to do so in nearly a year. A squat and stubby vehicle called Starhopper took a few brief flights in the summer of 2019, retiring after acing its own 500-foot-high hop that August.

Ending this flight lull fell to the SN5 after several of its predecessors were destroyed during pressurization or engine-firing tests.

Starhopper and the SN5 both feature a single Raptor, SpaceX's powerful next-generation engine. The final Starship vehicle will sport six Raptors, stand about 165 feet (50 m) tall and be capable of carrying up to 100 people, Musk has said.

The operational Starship will launch from Earth atop a gigantic rocket called Super Heavy, which will have 31 Raptors of its own. Both vehicles will be fully and rapidly reusable, potentially slashing the cost of spaceflight enough to make crewed trips to and from the moon, Mars and other deep-space destinations economically feasible, Musk has said.

Super Heavy will land back on Earth after each liftoff; Starship will be powerful enough on its own to get itself off Mars and the moon, both of which have much weaker gravitational pulls than our planet does.

Musk is particularly keen on the Red Planet, stressing repeatedly over the years that he founded SpaceX back in 2002 primarily to help humanity colonize Mars. If all goes well with the development of Starship and Super Heavy, the spaceflight system could enable our species to get a million-person city up and running on the Red Planet in the next 50 to 100 years, the billionaire entrepreneur has said.

A lot of development still needs to get done, of course. SpaceX will iterate repeatedly before arriving at the final Starship design, which will then need to be tested. And then there's Super Heavy, no version of which has yet been built, let alone gotten off the ground.

But if all goes well, we could see Starship and Super Heavy flying together soon, on exciting and important missions. The SpaceX system is a contender to land NASA astronauts on the moon in the mid-2020s and beyond, for example. And Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has booked a crewed Starship trip around the moon, with a targeted launch date of 2023.

In the much nearer term, however the coming days and weeks we should expect a few more short test hops like the one we saw today.

"Well do several short hops to smooth out launch process, then go high altitude with body flaps," Musk said in another tweet today. ("High altitude" could be around 12 miles, or 20 kilometers, up, if previous Musk tweets are any guide.)

Today's Starship milestone comes just two days after another big moment for SpaceX. On Sunday (Aug. 2), the company's Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast, bringing an end to Demo-2, SpaceX's first crewed mission. Demo-2, a key test flight for the system, sent NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station for two months.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX's Starship SN5 prototype soars on 1st test flight! 'Mars is looking real,' Elon Musk says - Space.com

File photo of NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is holding its head high with pride as the agencys Curiosity rover marks eight years of its exploration on the Red Planet today on August 5.

Launched in November 2011, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars at the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometres) Gale Crater on the night of August 5 in the year 2012.

Over the years, the Curiosity Rover has helped the scientists on Earth to understand various mysteries of Mars that would have otherwise remained impossible.

As the mission marked eight years, NASA has released a list of all the major results given by the agencys rover over the years.

Here's a look at them:

1. Evidence of continuous water flow on the surface of Mars in the past: One of the most important questions about living conditions on Mars included information about the presence of water and oxygen. Curiosity discovered smooth, rounded pebbles, confirming that water like rivers and lakes existed on Mars' surface for perhaps a million years or longer.

2. Proofs about suitable living conditions: It was the Curiosity rover which confirmed that Mars has a combination of living conditions that can support living microbes on its surface. These included the presence of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon, found from a sample dug from the Yellowknife Bay.

3. Presence of organic carbon: The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument discovered the presence of organic molecules in several samples collected from Mount Sharp and the surrounding plains on the Red planet.

4. Presence of Active Methane in Atmosphere: The Tunable Laser Spectrometer, present in the SAM instrument, successfully discovered the traces of atmospheric methane in Mars atmosphere. It also found that the content has increased ten-fold over two months.

5. Harmful effects of Mars Radiation to Human health: Each atmosphere comes with certain levels of radiation. The Curiosity rover experienced that the radiation levels in the Mars atmosphere might exceed the tolerance limit for astronauts.

6. Atmosphere and Water in Mars' Past: Over the last few years, the SAM instrument has established that Mars has an atmosphere which has the presence of heavier forms (isotopes) of hydrogen, carbon, and argon.

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8 Years of Curiosity: How the NASA's Mars Rover Helped Us Know the Red Planet Better - News18

Mars is cold and dry, with a thin atmosphere not even 1% as dense as ours.

Now, that is. The question is, what was it like around 3 billion years ago? Evidence abounds on the surface that plenty of water existed there back then, which also means it had a thicker atmosphere and was warmer, too.

However, a new paper has come out questioning that interpretation of the evidence. Instead of it being warm and wet, the scientists argue, instead it was cold and, well, not dry exactly, but frozen. This is hardly the semi-tropical Earth-like planet that for the past decade or two has been the growing consensus.

In this new work, they looked at the valley networks, systems of interconnected tributaries that have been carved into the surface of Mars, mostly in the southern hemisphere and equatorial regions. On first glance, they look very much like river valleys on Earth, carved by flowing water thats fed by either rain or a process called groundwater sapping, erosion from water that originally bubbles up from underground like in a spring or seeps out of rocks and sediment.

That conclusion would support a warm, wet early Mars with a thicker atmosphere. However, the scientists in the new research note that this is a conclusion drawn by looking at individual tributaries, and not the overall network they form as the run together. These valley networks can give a more global view thats worth investigating.

What they did to check this out is clever. They note that erosion like this can come from four major sources: Rivers and sapping (as noted above), and also from glaciers melting from above as well as glaciers melting from below. This last is called basal melting (basal means bottom surface), and can occur when glaciers move across rock, the friction from the shear force melting them.

Each of those forces produces different kinds of erosive channels, with different structures in them. Six of these features including the angle a tributary meets up with a main channel, the length of a channel versus its width, and how the bed undulates, that is, moves up and down (which relates to things like how fast the water was moving when it carved the channel) have measurable quantities that can be used to examine Martian tributaries.

On board NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is an instrument called MOLA, or Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which measures the ground elevation beneath it, making a topographical map of Mars. The scientists looked at 66 different valley networks that were made up of over 10,000 tributaries in total (out of over 50,000 MOLA measured), and used a statistical method to examine them for the six features. This was then used to assign an origin source for each network.

What they found is startling. Out of the 66, their analysis found that 22 valley networks were carved by subglacial flow, 9 by glacial erosion, 3 from sapping, and 14 from rivers. 18 networks had an indistinct set of features, and so were not categorized.

So 31 of these valley networks were carved by glacial water flow, and only 17 from surface water! And the ones caused by river flow were localized in one area (called Arabia Terra), whereas the glaciated valleys were widespread.

Thats not at all what the warm wet Mars theory would predict. Its far more consistent with Mars being very cold at that time. Mind you they did find both types of erosion, so its possible it was mostly glaciated with some spots open to the surface. But this is definitely opposed to the going idea of a clement Martian climate back then.

They also point out that some climate models of early Mars around that time (3.52.9 billion years ago) indicate the surface should have been cold, and heavily glaciated.

I find this fascinating. Until we started putting high-resolution cameras in orbit and landers on the ground, the idea was that Mars was always dead. Then about 40 years ago that all changed when the surface showed clear indications of water flow. That was a huge paradigm shift for scientists. If this new research is correct, then were facing another one.

More observations from the ground should be useful; an overview is great but it helps to have in situ measurements as well (theres a reason we have the phrase ground truth). Curious, I checked the maps they used of tributaries, and the ones in Jezero Crater on Mars werent included, which is too bad: Thats the target for Perseverance, which will land there in February 2021. There are clear inflow and outflow channels in the crater rim, a fluvial delta where sediment washed in, and evidence of clay deposits (which imply standing water) as well. Still, with the rover there a lot more will be revealed about conditions in the crater when it was a lake.

Theres also evidence of standing water on Mars, including lakes and even what might be an ocean shoreline the northern hemisphere is in general lower elevation than the south, and may have been a huge global ocean. Its not clear.

Itll be interesting to see all this opposing evidence integrated together to see whats what. Whether Mars was warm or cold, wet or frozen, its changed a lot in the past few eons. Why? What happened to it? Weve got an idea its internal magnetic field died, and it lost its protection against the solar wind which eroded away its atmosphere, leaving it dry and cold and dead but the details are still being investigated.

Was ancient Mars blue, or was it white? Hopefully soon well know.

Continue reading here:

Was young Mars warm and wet or cold and frozen? - SYFY WIRE

MISSION: MARS THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BECOME A FUTURE MARS EXPLORER

AUGUST 5 @ 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM PDTThe first human mission to Mars will be humanitys greatest adventure in space exploration in the 21st century. As with all expeditions, its success will depend on planning, which includes having well-trained explorers. Following his award-winning book Mission: Mars published by Scholastic, Dr Lee will take kids of all ages through six key phases of early training to become Future Mars Explorers:

1) Discover Mars, to learn more about the planet youll explore.2) Prepare for Launch, to plan for the trip and the extra training youll undergo.3) Navigate Space, to prep you for the long flight through deep space to Mars and back.4) Gear Up for Survival, to train you to survive and explore once you arrive on Mars;5) Explore the Red Planet, to show you the coolest places to check out on Mars;6) Plan a New World, to glimpse what Mars might look like in the future.

Are you ready?

HOW TO WATCHFacebook Live:RSVP on Facebookor just tune in!

"MISSION: MARS" is back in print! Here's where to get it: https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/mission-mars-9780545565325.html

For more information visithttps://chabotspace.org/calendar/mission-mars-things-you-need-to-know-to-become-a-future-mars-explorer/

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MISSION: MARS THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BECOME A FUTURE MARS EXPLORER - SETI Institute

Netflix is taking us to Mars, and we got the inside story on how it'll look.As part of the CTAM (or Cable Telecommunications Association for Marketing) summer press tour for Netflix, reporters got a deeper look at their upcoming drama, Away, which dramatizesin the near future, theworld's first human-led voyage to Mars. It stars Hilary Swank at U.S. CommanderEmma Green, along with actors Ray Panthaki, Ato Essandoh, Mark Ivanir and Vivian Wu as members of hermulti-national team of scientists and astronauts.

Executive producerJason Katims (Friday Night Lights), creator/EP Andrew Hinderaker and showrunner/EP Jessica Goldberg virtually collectedtheir core cast to reveal an extended trailer and explain how they believe the show itself has evolved into an even more timely tale for our pandemic reality.

Opening the conversation,Katims explained: "We had shot the first season and were in postwhen we all had to go home and work remotely. Editors and producers and VFX were sending cuts back and forth trying to figure out how to do this without human interaction.We found ourselves rewatching cuts of the show that resonated like we never imagined. It's about [the characters] notbeing with people who are most important to you, making life decisions without your husband or kid, and not being able to step out into the world." And while Katims said the show is about many things, the core of the series is clearly even more rooted in revealing thehuman spirit and how, when its tested, what its capable of accomplishing.

The 10-episode series debuts on September 4, 2020 and was born out of Katims reading astronaut Chris Jones' Esquire essay about being out in space whilehis family was rooted on Earth. While he admits he's not a "space show" guy, the idea stuck with him. "It really appealed to me, doing a show that was epic and grand with gravitas about space, but also about personal relationships."

He then connected withHinderaker, who wrote the pilot, andGoldberg, who ran the day-to-day of Away. For his part, Hinderaker admitted that the hopefulness of space exploration was what hooked him. Yet in the year since they started production, he added that, "I do think now, more than ever, it's also time to remember what [humanity] is capable of, and to remember what happens when we believe in science and the world works together."

The show's cast was equally inspired by the hopeful nature of the series. Swank, also an EP on the series, said of her character,"Thewriters wrote such an immensely layered human being in [Emma]. I love that the Commander is a woman and thats not the drama of the story. The drama is a story about richly different racial backgrounds, people working towards a goal but also the gravitational pull to their families on Earth, so it's also a love story. It's a dream come true of Emma's to lead a mission to mars, and being an unexpected mother and these other humans on this mission learn to break through stereotypes to connect us all."

ActorAto Essandoh, who plays Kwesi, the least experienced Botanist of the team, added that what the story reveals to the audience a metaphorical path of clarity for howhumanity is reacting to our current COVID-19 crisis. "Will we ever be able to shoot again?" he said with uncertainty about how U.S. film and television production has been grounded since March. "What we used to take for granted is now being challenged. To tell any story, we all need to come together and agree on the problem. It cant be done piece-meal. It's about finding whatwill get us all to agree on the problem, and work together despite different religions and creeds."

All 10-episodes of Away drop on September 4, 2020 on Netflix.

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Netflix's 'Away' uses Mars mission to tell a timely story of isolation and aspirational ideals - SYFY WIRE

Mars massive cloud is back.

Every year during Mars summer solstice, a cloud of water ice forms on the leeward side of Arsia Mons, one of Mars largest extinct volcanoes. The cloud can grow to be up to 1800 km (1120 miles) long. It forms each morning, then disappears the same day, only to reappear the next morning. Researchers have named it the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC).

The massive extinct volcano that is home to the cloud is Arsia Mons, a 20 km high (12.4 miles) landmark on Mars surface. Mars is too cold for liquid water, so the cloud is made of water ice. Though it looks like it could be a plume from the volcano, its not. All of Mars volcanic activity ceased a long time ago.

The cloud is seasonal, and observers were expecting it around this time of year.

We have been investigating this intriguing phenomenon and were expecting to see such a cloud form around now, explains Jorge Hernandez-Bernal, PhD candidate at the University of the Basque Country (Spain) and lead author of the ongoing study.

This elongated cloud forms every Martian year during this season around the southern solstice, and repeats for 80 days or even more, following a rapid daily cycle. However, we dont know yet if the clouds are always quite this impressive, added Bernal in a press release.

The southern solstice is when the Sun is in its southernmost position in the sky. Since a Martian year is about twice as long as an Earth year687 days compared to 365the seasons last about twice as long. This cloud grows each morning during the season, for about three hours. Then, it disappears.

The extent of this huge cloud cant be seen if your camera only has a narrow field of view, or if youre only observing in the afternoon, says Eleni Ravanis, a Young Graduate Trainee for the Mars Express mission who works specifically for the VMC instrument.

The ESAs Mars Express spacecraft spotted the cloud with its Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC.) While other cameras on orbiters try to zoom in and get as much detail as possible, VMC is different. Its been described as a web cam in space, and its wide angle helps it see things like the cloud.

Luckily for Mars Express, the highly elliptical orbit of the spacecraft, coupled with the wide field of view of the VMC instrument, lets us take pictures covering a wide area of the planet in the early morning, said Ravanis. That means we can catch it!

The spacecraft is on a wide elliptical orbit, which takes it as far as 10,107km (6,280mi) away from the planet. From that distance, it can image the entire planet, and can capture large-scale features like this cloud.

The Martian atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide, which makes up over 95% of the atmosphere. Water vapour is only a trace gas, and has high variability seasonally, daily, and spatially. Researchers hope that watching this cloud will help fill in the picture of Mars atmosphere, including how carbon dioxide behaves.

The cloud is an orographic cloud, meaning that its formation is shaped by geography. Theyre common on Earth, where mountain ranges force approaching air to rise. When the air cools, the water vapour condenses and becomes visible.

Arsia Mons is one of the three extinct volcanoes that make up the Tharsis Montes region on Mars, along with Pavonis Mons and Ascraeus Mons. Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three. To the northwest of those three lies Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the Solar System.

The massive Olympus Mons also plays host to clouds of water ice. Those clouds dont form an elongated stream like AMEC does, but theyre still orographic. They form due to Olympus Mons altitude, which is greater than 21 km (13 miles.)

With a human mission to Mars somewhere on the horizon, the planet is being scrutinized more than ever before. Currently, there are six orbiters operating at the planet, and two surface missions. A third surface mission, NASAs Perseverance Rover, is en route to the red planet.

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Theres One Cloud on Mars Thats Over 1800 km Long - Universe Today