Tag: MAVEN

  • Scientists say thinning atmosphere drove the drying and cooling of Mars

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    Artist’s concept of a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from the upper atmosphere. Credit: NASA/GSFC Data collected by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft in its first two years at Mars confirm suspicions that the solar wind is blasting away the planet’s atmosphere and helped transform the world from a warmer, wetter and potentially habitable world…

  • NASA spacecraft steers clear of Martian moon Phobos

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    ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft took this image of Phobos backdropped by the limb of Mars. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft in orbit around Mars maneuvered out of the path of Phobos earlier this week after navigators predicted the spacecraft could run into the Martian moon in the near future, highlighting the challenge…

  • Solar wind blasting away Martian atmosphere

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The solar wind, the million-mile-per-hour stream of charged particles blasted away from the sun, is slowly but surely stripping away Mars’ atmosphere and likely played a major role in turning the red planet from a habitable world in the distant past into the dry, frozen wasteland seen today,…

  • MAVEN begins science mission at Mars

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    Artist’s concept of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft at Mars. Credit: NASA/GSFC NASA’s newest Mars orbiter has formally started a one-year research campaign to study an ancient case of climate change that starved the red planet of water, breathable air and potential life, scientists said Monday. The mission’s milestone came after two months of instrument calibrations, test…

  • India, NASA plot science campaign for Mars orbiters

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    TORONTO – Officials working on India’s Mars orbiter project are finalizing plans for a six-month science campaign after the spacecraft arrived in orbit last week, an achievement that has already satisfied the mission’s primary objectives, the head of India’s space agency said Monday. Since the probe entered orbit around Mars, scientists have switched on four…