Global detections of oxychlorine salts reveal a complex, 4-billion-year chemical cycle on Mars. They can act as de-icing agents, oxidants, a hazard and a vital resource for future human exploration.
Mars
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Road Map to Truly Sustainable Water Systems in Space
Future astronauts need efficient, durable, and trustworthy closed-loop systems to provide water for missions lasting months to years.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Successful Liquid Lake Conditions in a Cold Martian Paleoclimate
Simulations from a new lake model explain how liquid water could have been maintained over Mars in a cold climate, thus resolving a critical scientific gap in our understanding of Mars’ early history.
Posted inNews
Could Future Mars Habitats Be Made of Ice?
Models suggest that clear ice, sourced and distilled on Mars, could offer a feasible alternative for building stable off-world structures.
Posted inNews
Fungi, Fertilizer, and Feces Could Help Astronauts Grow Plants on the Moon
A new study offers tantalizing evidence that filamentous fungi extending from roots, along with treated astronaut waste, could provide sufficient scaffolding to help plants grow in planetary regolith.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Maybe That’s Not Liquid Water on Mars After All
A “very large roll” of a radar instrument offers new insight into a highly reflective area near the Martian south pole.
Posted inNews
Sediments Hint at Large Ancient Martian Moon
Regular, alternating layers in Gale Crater may have been deposited as the result of tides raised by a moon at least 18 times the mass of Phobos, a study says.
Posted inNews
Martian Dust Devils Reveal Dynamic Surface Winds
A new wind map covering the whole of Mars includes some of the fastest winds ever detected on the Red Planet.
Posted inResearch & Developments
JPL Workforce Decimated
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., laid off 550 people, a roughly 11% reduction of its workforce.
Posted inNews
Scientists May Have Finally Detected a Solid Inner Core on Mars
Seismic clues from NASA’s InSight mission suggest that Mars hides a solid inner core, and raise new questions about why the planet’s magnetic field disappeared.