The most popular view of early Mars is that it was a warm and wet planet. But new climate models suggest young Mars might have been cold and icy.
Blue Mars
A new study of the water isotopes on Mars show that Mars was an ocean world 4 billion years ago.
Grand Canyon of Mars
The Grand Canyon was formed by water. So how did a dry world like Mars form an even larger canyon?
Mars Opposition
No, Mars will not appear as big as the Moon tomorrow night. I’m sure that’s a fact most of you already know, but the rumor has made its annual return to social media, so I figure it’s worth stating again. The image you see above, as well as other similar images, is fake.
Blood Ore
Hematite is a fairly common iron oxide mineral. The particular sample seen above comes from the iron range of northern Minnesota. It is about 2.7 billion years old, and is a type of hematite known as gray hematite. It doesn’t look very gray in the picture, since it has been exposed to air and water since its formation. Typically when you see hematite, it is carved and polished so that it looks like gray metallic stone, but in its raw form its surface is usually reddish in color, which is why it is also known as “blood ore.
Mars Transit
About a year ago Curiosity happened to be in the path of an eclipse. So Curiosity was directed to take a series of photographs of the Sun. You can see the result here. The shadow moving across the Sun is Phobos, and you can see it pass in real time. Phobos is must smaller than our Moon, only about 27 …
Mars Mission
On October 19 of this year the comet C/2013 A1 (more commonly known as Siding Spring) will make a very close approach to Mars. At its closest point, the comet could be only 120,000 km from the surface of Mars. There’s no chance it will hit the planet, but such a near miss could have an effect on both the planet and the probes orbiting it.
A Rusted Development
Of the tens of thousands of meteorites that have been discovered on Earth, about a hundred came from Mars, such as the one pictured here. We know they originated from Mars because their composition is different from other meteorites, and they correlate with the atmospheric and geological composition of Mars as determined by the Martian landers. They are currently the only martian material to which we have direct access.
War and Peace
When seen in the night sky, Mars is a burnt-reddish color. It’s sometimes brighter and sometimes dimmer as over the months and years it moves against the background stars. Sometimes it appears to stop along its starry path and reverse direction for a while, exhibiting what is known as retrograde motion. With its bloody color and strange motion through the sky, it is perhaps not surprising that it is named after the Roman god of war.
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