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Thawing ‘Dry Ice’ Drives Groovy Action on Mars

By Guest PostJanuary 27, 2013Sciencearizona, candice hansen, carbon dioxide sublimation, crism, dark fans, driving factor, dry ice, dynamic process, dynamic world, earth, frozen carbon dioxide, ganna portyankina, groovy action, hirise camera, ice cap, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, mars south pole, mars today, martian sand dunes, martian years, NASA, north polar, planetary science institute, seasonal changes, switzerland, thawing, transient grooves, tucson, university, university of bern

PASADENA, Calif. — Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter see seasonal changes on far-northern Martian sand dunes caused by warming of a winter blanket of frozen carbon dioxide.

Earth has no naturally frozen carbon dioxide, though pieces of manufactured carbon-dioxide ice, called “dry ice,” sublime directly from solid to gas on Earth, just as the vast blankets of dry ice do on Mars. A driving factor in the springtime changes where seasonal coverings of dry ice form on Mars is that thawing occurs at the underside of the ice sheet, where it is in contact with dark ground being warmed by early-spring sunshine through translucent ice. The trapped gas builds up pressure and breaks out in various ways. (more…)

Martian Crater May Once Have Held Groundwater-Fed Lake

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2013Sciencearabia terra, carbonate, clay mineral, compact reconnaissance, crism, early evolution, flat rock, groundwater, hydrothermal fluids, imaging spectrometer, joseph michalski, lake environment, layered, mars, mars orbiters, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian crater, martian history, mclaughlin crater, meteor impact, mro, nasa spacecraft, non acidic conditions, potential habitat, red planet, rich zurek, scott murchie, spectrometer data, subsurface, subsurface habitability, underground water, wet underground environment

PASADENA, Calif. — A NASA spacecraft is providing new evidence of a wet underground environment on Mars that adds to an increasingly complex picture of the Red Planet’s early evolution.

The new information comes from researchers analyzing spectrometer data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which looked down on the floor of McLaughlin Crater. The Martian crater is 57 miles (92 kilometers) in diameter and 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) deep. McLaughlin’s depth apparently once allowed underground water, which otherwise would have stayed hidden, to flow into the crater’s interior. (more…)

NASA Spacecraft Data Suggest Water Flowing on Mars

By Guest PostAugust 5, 2011Sciencealfred mcewen, charles bolden, compact reconnaissance imaging spectrometer for mars, crism, frozen water, high resolution imaging science experiment, hirise, human exploration, mars reconnaissance orbiter, mars southern hemisphere, martian slopes, NASA, red planet, richard zurek, salt deposits, saltiness, shallow subsurface flows, tucson, university of arizona, warm season

PASADENA, Calif. –– Observations from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.

“NASA’s Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “and it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration.” (more…)

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Thawing ‘Dry Ice’ Drives Groovy Action on Mars

Martian Crater May Once Have Held Groundwater-Fed Lake

NASA Spacecraft Data Suggest Water Flowing on Mars