An unexpected tool gives us new insight into the fine structure of Mars’ outer layers. Using meteorites that broke off from the red planet way back about 11 million years ago and were flung into space to eventually land on Earth, scientists have been able to study the way volcanism shaped Mars’ crust and mantle … Read more
Illustration of the Earth, with the continents in their current form, but with the planet complete … [+] frozen. The snowball Earth hypothesis suggests that the Earth may have frozen in this way hundreds of millions of years ago due to severe climate change. This illustration represents what the planet would look like if this … Read more
Mars’ moon Phobos could be a comet — or at least part of it — that was captured by the Red Planet’s gravity long ago, according to a new preprint study based on previously unpublished images. For years, researchers have puzzled over the origins of Phobos and its twin brother, Deimos. Some have theorized that … Read more
The chief scientist of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is excited about material stored in the rover’s sample tubes, dropped both on the surface of Mars and in the rover itself while orbiting Jezero Crater. Given the Martian samples Perseverance has collected so far, could one of those be what the rover was meant to look … Read more