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Mars' chemical history: Phyllosian, Theiikian, Siderikian, oh my
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/12/05 01:08 CST | 1 comments
I'm returning to the deep dive into the literature that began with articles about lunar basins and then explored the geologic time scales of Earth, Moon, and Mars. Now it's time to catch up to the last decade of Mars research and learn what "phyllosian", "theiikian", and "siderikian" eras are.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/11/20 05:24 CST | 2 comments
The polar plains, charted in unprecedented detail.
Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian, oh my! --Mars' Geologic Time Scale
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/25 04:32 CDT | 3 comments
The Martian Geologic Time Scale is a lot more complicated than the Moon's.
Google+ Hangout with ESA about Europe's Mars exploration
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 09:00 CDT
The European Space Agency invited me to join Mars Express project scientist Olivier Witasse, and spacecraft oeprations manager Michel Denis for a Hangout on Europe's recent and future exploration of Mars and Phobos.
Super cool Phobos and Deimos animations from Mars Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/03 02:17 CDT
I've been delving in to the Mars Express image archive this week, checking out its images of Phobos, and found a couple of really cool time-series of images to assemble into animations.
Riding Along With Mars Express
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/09/16 06:03 CDT | 1 comments
Take a spin around the Red Planet with the trusty orbiter.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/20 07:37 CDT | 4 comments
Those sneaky scientists on Curiosity managed to catch a Phobos transit of the Sun with one set of cameras, and to watch its shadow darkening the surface with another. COOL!
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/08/12 08:03 CDT | 8 comments
New images from Mars.
Enormously detailed photo of Kasei Valles from Mars Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/19 02:36 CDT | 7 comments
ESA celebrated the tenth anniversary of Mars Express' launch with a several-day science meeting during which they issued lots of press releases and numerous spectacular photos. My favorite of them all is this enormous image of Kasei Valles on Mars.
Exploring Ten Years' Worth of Mars Express Data
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/06/13 01:09 CDT | 3 comments
Mars Express has been in flight for a decade, more than enough time to send home some amazing finds.
The Shores of the Kraken Sea: Great Place Names in the Solar System
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/05/28 08:59 CDT | 9 comments
Nothing reflects the romance of deep space exploration more than the evocative names of places on the planets and moons.
Many More Colors than Red: Exploring Mars with Spectroscopy
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/05/20 01:31 CDT | 6 comments
Mars gives up its secrets through the unseen colors of its rocks.
A walk among the mesas of Deuteronilus Mensae
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/19 02:17 CDT | 4 comments
Enjoy some pretty pictures of some bizarre terrain on Mars: the mesas of Deuteronilus Mensae.
Day Hikes in the Labyrinth of Night
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/02/04 10:02 CST
Noctis Labyrinthus on Mars is an amazing place for an imagined day hike, courtesy of images from Mars Express.
Mars Express VMC resumes raw data posting
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/12/19 09:31 CST | 2 comments
ESA brought Mars Express' VMC back online in May, but hasn't been posting the images. This week, they launched a new process to release VMC images automatically to a Flickr page.
Book Review: The International Atlas of Mars Exploration, by Phil Stooke
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/12 04:31 CDT | 3 comments
I've been waiting for the publication of this book for years. Phil Stooke's International Atlas of Mars Exploration, just published by Cambridge University Press, is an exhaustively awesome labor of love, chronicling the first five decades of Mars exploration in pictures, maps, and facts.
What's up in the Solar System in August 2012
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/08/03 06:03 CDT
Welcome to the monthly roundup of our solar system's envoy of electronic explorers! All eyes are on Curiosity as it approaches Mars this weekend. Who will lend support at the Red Planet?
Notes from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference: A little bit of Phobos and Deimos
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/22 12:04 CDT | 3 comments
I just sat in the "small bodies" session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, listening to three talks about Phobos. The first was by Abby Fraeman, who looked at data on Phobos and Deimos from the two imaging spectrometers in orbit at Mars. The next talk, by L. Chappaz, was motivated by Phobos-Grunt's mission. It asked: if you grabbed 200 grams of soil from the surface of Phobos, how much of that material would actually have originated on Mars? Then there was a particularly interesting talk that dealt with the question of how Phobos' grooves formed.
Has Mars Express MARSIS data proved that Mars once had a northern ocean?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/07 05:46 CST
There's been a bit of buzz on the Web this week regarding an ESA press release titled "ESA's Mars Express radar gives strong evidence for former Mars ocean." I don't ordinarily write about press-released science papers, but am making an exception for this one
Mars Exploration Family Portrait
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/23 12:26 CST | 1 comments
Jason Davis put together this neat summary of the checkered history of Mars exploration.
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