Tag Archives: atmosphere

MAVEN sheds light on habitability of distant planets

How long might a rocky, Mars-like planet be habitable if it were orbiting a red dwarf star? It’s a complex question but one that NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission can help answer. “The MAVEN mission tells us that … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, December 4-10, 2017

Diffuse afternoon water-ice clouds continued to be the prominent feature over the tropics of Mars this past week. Among these latitudes, local-scale dust storms were observed over eastern Meridiani, southern Arabia, and northeast of Arsia Mons (the southernmost volcano of … Continue reading

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Clays quickly cooked in early Mars steambath

New research suggests that the bulk of clay minerals on Mars could have been formed as the planet’s crust cooled and solidified, not by later interactions with water on the surface as has long been assumed. (…) There are thousands … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, Nov 27-Dec 3, 2017

During the past week on Mars, dust hazes and dust clouds were observed over northern Utopia, just west of the Olympia dune field. Looking to the low latitudes, the aphelion cloud belt proceeded to dominate the skies with condensate water-ice … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, November 20-26, 2017

Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice arrived last week on Mars. The northern polar ice cap had nearly reached its perennial (near minimum) configuration. Dust lifting off of the northern cap edge contributed to dust hazes over Acidalia and northern Utopia. The … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, November 6-12, 2017

Dust-lifting near the north polar ice cap led to murky conditions over parts of Acidalia and northern Utopia. The dust that was pushed southward over Acidalia, formed a stationary dust cloud — likely the result of an eddy. Looking to … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, Oct 30-Nov 5, 2017

Last week on Mars, a slight up-tick in dust-lifting occurred along the north polar ice cap edge. As storm activity northeast of Tempe pushed dust southward over the plains of Acidalia, a dust storm also swept over the sands of … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, October 23-29, 2017

This past week dust-lifting near the edge of the perennial north polar ice cap transported dust to the plains of Arcadia and Acidalia. Meanwhile, an expanse of water-ice clouds, known as the aphelion cloud-belt continued to dominate the skies of … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, October 16-22, 2017

Dust-lifting activity near the north polar ice cap swept diffuse dust clouds southward to the plains of Acidalia this past week. Looking further south, short-lived local-scale dust storms were spotted northwest of Elysium Mons. In the mid-latitudes, water-ice orographic clouds … Continue reading

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ExoMars aerobraking becomes too severe; shifts automatically to higher orbit

ExoMars has successfully performed a Flux Reduction Manoeuvre (FRM) for the first time. The manoeuvre was triggered by the excessive density of Mars’ atmosphere, which had slowed the spacecraft above the limit the operations team normally allows. The manoeuvre happened … Continue reading

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