The Mars rover Curiosity has for the first time found evidence of indigenous nitrogen in the form of nitrate in aeolian deposits and in two mudstone deposits on the red planet. This discovery has great implications for habitability and, “specifically for the potential evolution of a nitrogen cycle at some point in Martian history.” The … Continue reading Fixed nitrogen: Mars was once habitable
Mars rover
Editorial: Curiosity can’t kill life on Mars
As if the news on earth weren’t depressing enough, the latest dispatches from Mars are also gloomy. It turns out the red planet doesn’t have any atmospheric methane. Earthlings longing for inter-galactic companionship may have to set their sights elsewhere, for the gas is an important chemical signature of microbial activity. On earth, more than … Continue reading Editorial: Curiosity can’t kill life on Mars
Editorial: A year of curiosity
Curiosity — the car-sized remote vehicle with an array of sophisticated instruments — may have travelled only a little more than 1.6 km within the Gale Crater on Mars as it completed one year on the red planet August 6, but the invaluable information it has sent back has certainly changed our understanding of the … Continue reading Editorial: A year of curiosity
Editorial: A river ran through Mars
From finding a trail of evidence supporting the presence of water on Mars a few billion years ago, Curiosity’s discovery of subrounded or rounded pebbles provides definitive proof that the red planet once had a river. According to a May 31 paper in Science, multiple exposures of a sedimentary rock (conglomerate) containing densely-packed rounded pebbles, … Continue reading Editorial: A river ran through Mars
Rounded pebbles on Mars point to water flow
For the first time ever, scientists have been able to collect unequivocal evidence that water had once flowed on Mars some three billion years ago. Observations by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity have revealed pebble-rich rock exposures that are so very characteristic of a riverbed. The round-shaped pebbles embedded in a matrix of coarse-grained sand are … Continue reading Rounded pebbles on Mars point to water flow
Radiation risk to astronauts travelling to Mars measured
Measurements made by the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on board Curiosity show that radiation in deep space poses a “significant” risk to human space travellers. During the 253-day, 560-million-km trip of the spacecraft to Mars from November 26, 2011 to August 6, 2012, the detector recorded 466 millisevert (mSv) radiation with an error margin of … Continue reading Radiation risk to astronauts travelling to Mars measured
Editorial: Mars mission accomplished
Published in The Hindu on March 28, 2013 In what counts for one more extraordinary achievement in space science, the Mars Curiosity rover launched by NASA scientists has found strong evidence of habitable conditions that once existed at the Yellowknife Bay area in Gale crater. These reconfirm that certain regions on Mars have had favourable … Continue reading Editorial: Mars mission accomplished
Editorial: Watery Mars
Published in The Hindu on February 4, 2013 Mars might have been cold and dry with a transient presence of water at the surface some four billion years ago — the early Noachian period. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the environment below the surface was surely warmer and wetter, with liquid water present … Continue reading Editorial: Watery Mars
Editorial: New evidence of water on Mars
Published in The Hindu on December 23, 2011 The indefatigable quest for firm evidence of liquid water on ancient Mars appears to have finally succeeded. NASA's Opportunity rover recently discovered a dozen bright veins of gypsum mineral and the results were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California. The … Continue reading Editorial: New evidence of water on Mars
Is Curiosity only an advanced science lab?
Published in The Hindu on December 1, 2011 Of course, it has a suite of 10 scientific instruments and is rightfully named the Mars Science Laboratory. Many of the instruments on board are first of their kind and will help in fulfilling the main objective of finding out if the conditions on Mars many millions … Continue reading Is Curiosity only an advanced science lab?
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