Temperature readings acquired from orbit show that Mars's surface gets cold enough at night to allow layers of solid carbon dioxide frost up to several hundred micrometers thick to build up near the equator.
Mars
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A (Dust) Devil of a Time—on Mars
New computer simulations of Martian dust devils could aid Red Planet weather forecasts.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Curiosity Sends Curious Water Data from Mars
The rover's neutron spectroscopy instrument hints at an unexpected trend: The upper soil levels in the layers of Gale Crater's Kimberley formation seem to hold more water-associated hydrogen.
Posted inNews
As Mars Gets Close, So Does a Blitz of Red Planet Dramas
NASA's first Mars program director advised the creators of the new film The Space Between Us, which opens this summer, on the science related to Mars colonization.
Posted inAGU News
How on Earth to Decide Where on Mars to Land?
The Public Lecture at AGU's 2016 Fall Meeting will feature three experts—including one still in high school—to discuss landing site selection for the Mars 2020 rover.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious Heavy Ion Beams Above Mars Explained
NASA's latest mission to Mars has uncovered the origins of fast-moving streams of particles high above the planet, flowing against the solar wind.
Posted inNews
Tsunamis Splashed Ancient Mars
Massive meteorites likely slammed into a Martian ocean billions of years ago, unleashing tsunami waves up to 120 meters tall, a close study of a region of the Red Planet's terrain has found.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Martian Carbonates Spotted by the Orbiter
The minerals identified by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provide more evidence that the planet may have once been habitable.
Posted inNews
Impacts Might Have Made Ancient Mars Briefly Hospitable to Life
A bombardment of the Red Planet 4 billion years ago could have created hot springs that allowed life to flourish.
Posted inScience Updates
Where Curiosity Has Taken Us
The Curiosity rover, one of NASA's flagship missions, analyzes Martian geology, geochemistry, climatology, and radiation to assess whether Mars could have supported microbial life.