Mars | SpaceRef - Mars Today

Mars TOP STORY

Mars' Atmosphere Protected From The Solar Wind

Mars

Despite the absence of a global Earth-like magnetic dipole, the Martian atmosphere is well protected from the effects of the solar wind on ion escape from the planet.

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Mars TOP STORIES

Opportunity Rover Team's Tilted Winter Strategy Works

Opportunity's View

NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, has just passed the shortest-daylight weeks of the long Martian year with its solar panels in encouragingly clean condition for entering a potential dust-storm season in 2018.

NASA Builds its Next Mars Rover Mission

In just a few years, NASA's next Mars rover mission will be flying to the Red Planet.

Recurring Martian Streaks: Flowing Sand, Not Water?

Dark features on Mars previously considered evidence for subsurface flowing of water are interpreted by new research as granular flows, where grains of sand and dust slip downhill to make dark streaks, rather than the ground being darkened by seeping water.

Mars 2020 Mission Performs First Supersonic Parachute Test

Landing on Mars is difficult and not always successful. Well-designed advance testing helps.

Phobos Photobombed Mars While Hubble Was Watching

The sharp eye of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured the tiny moon Phobos during its orbital trek around Mars on 12 May 2016.

Virtual Astronaut for Scientific Visualization

To support scientific visualization of multiple-mission data from Mars, the Virtual Astronaut (VA) creates an interactive virtual 3D environment built on the Unity3D Game Engine.

Martian Ridge Brings Out Rover's Color Talents

Color-discerning capabilities that NASA's Curiosity rover has been using on Mars since 2012 are proving particularly helpful on a mountainside ridge the rover is now climbing.

The Next Mars Rover Will Have 23 Eyes

When NASA's Mars Pathfinder touched down in 1997, it had five cameras: two on a mast that popped up from the lander, and three on NASA's first rover, Sojourner.

A Window Into The Past On Mars

The layered sedimentary deposits inside the giant canyons of Mars have puzzled scientists for decades.

Curiosity Gets Ready To Drill Again

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity team is working to restore Curiosity's sample-drilling capability using new techniques. The latest development is a preparatory test on Mars.

MAVEN Finds Mars Has a Twisted Magnetic Tail

Mars has an invisible magnetic "tail" that is twisted by interaction with the solar wind, according to new research using data from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft.

Layered Deposits in Uzboi Vallis on Mars

Layered deposits in Uzboi Vallis sometimes occur in alcoves along the valley and/or below where tributaries enter it.

A Closer Look at Holden Crater

Holden Crater in southern Margaritifer Terra displays a series of finely layered deposits on its floor (white and light purple in an enhanced color image).

Martian Prospecting From Orbit

The combination of morphological and topographic information from stereo images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as compositional data from near-infrared spectroscopy has been proven to be a powerful tool for understanding the geology of Mars.

Dunes on Wind-swept Mars

Depressions such as impact craters can act as traps for sediments that have been blown in from elsewhere, accumulating in various patterns whipped up by strong winds.

Examining Mars' Moon Phobos in a Different Light

NASA's longest-lived mission to Mars has gained its first look at the Martian moon Phobos, pursuing a deeper understanding by examining it in infrared wavelengths.