West Lafayette IN (SPX) Aug 26, 2022
The accepted view of Mars is red rocks and craters as far as the eye can see. That's much what scientists expected when they landed the rover Perseverance in the Jezero Crater, a spot chosen partly for the crater's history as a lake and as part of a rich river system, back when Mars had liquid water, air and a magnetic field. What the rover found once on the ground was startling: Rather th

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 26, 2022
After a tantalizing year-and-a-half wait since the Mars Perseverance Rover touched down on our nearest planetary neighbor, new data is arriving - and bringing with it a few surprises. The rover, which is about the size of car and carries seven scientific instruments, has been probing Mars' 30-mile-wide Jezero crater, once the site of a lake and an ideal spot to search for evidence of ancie

Boulder CO (SPX) Aug 26, 2022
A new study of zircon crystals from two of Earth's oldest continents indicates that the formation of Earth's continental crust goes through cycles, with periods of increased crust production roughly every 200 million years, corresponding to the solar system's transit through the four primary spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. According to the study published in the journal Geology yesterday, r

University MS (SPX) Aug 26, 2022
It's been 50 years since humans last visited the Moon, and even robotic missions have been few and far between. But the Earth's only natural satellite is about to get crowded. At least six countries and a flurry of private companies have publicly announced more than 250 missions to the Moon to occur within the next decade. Many of these missions include plans for permanent lunar bases and

Moscow (AFP) Aug 26, 2022
Russia's only active female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, said Friday she was ready for her upcoming flight to the International Space Station aboard Space X's Crew Dragon. The flight, scheduled for October 3, is set to go ahead despite soaring tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. Kikina, a 37-year-old engineer, will be only the fifth professi

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 26, 2022
In NASA's hunt for water and resources beyond Earth, a new technology could coat the "skin" of a satellite, turning its entire surface into a sensor that tallies the chemicals present on distant planets. Solving the mysteries of our home planet, solar system, and beyond is a key priority for NASA, and the new sensor could be a powerful tool in the investigation. Mahmooda Sultana, an instru

Los Alamos NM (SPX) Aug 26, 2022
Scientists on NASA's Perseverance mission made a surprising discovery about the composition of rock in Jezero Crater, one that will help them get a better idea of when water existed on Mars, and ultimately, help them understand if the red planet was ever habitable to microbial life. "The SuperCam instrument suite of remote chemical and mineralogical tools on the Perseverance rover has made

Week in images: 22-26 August 2022

Discover our week through the lens

Save the date: this year’s 11^th annual ESA Open Day at ESTEC in the Netherlands is confirmed to take place on Sunday 2 October. One of a string of ‘ESA Days’ across Member States, this is the day when the gates of the Agency’s technical heart will be thrown open to the general public, to see space hardware and testing facilities and meet space scientists, engineers and ESA astronauts.