Latest news with #TraceGasOrbiter
The National
11-05-2025
- Science
- The National
Mars rover technology tested out in Scottish Highlands
A team from the University of St Andrews has been testing equipment in Lower Diabaig in Torridon, where there are rocks that are billions of years old and similar to those found on Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning to send a robotic rover to Mars to study its geology and look for fossils and minerals, the BBC reports. So far, the trials in Torridon have considered the type of cameras which should be used as the rover's "eyes", as well as tests on equipment that can detect ancient biology preserved in the rock. READ MORE: Update as huge wildfire continues to burn in West Lothian amid 'extreme warning' The robot is named after London-born scientist Rosalind Franklin, who died in 1958. ESA said the missions would tackle the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. The project, known as the ExoMars programme, is made up of two missions. The First, called Trace Gas Orbiter, was launched in 2016. The second mission has a target launch of 2028 and aims to land the rover on Mars. Many geological areas and features on Mars have been named by Nasa after places on Earth, including in Scotland. Some of the names taken from Scotland include Torridon, Holyrood, Siccar Point, Muck, Wick and Sandwick. Dr Claire Cousins, from the University of St Andrews, said the rare geology around Lower Diabaig was "ideal" for testing the rover. READ MORE: I visited Donald Trump's ancestral homeland. This is what I learned about him She told BBC Scotland's Landward programme: "The rocks haven't metamorphosed right, they haven't been cooked and squeezed and crushed under mountain belts. "They have been beautifully preserved – a slice of time. "We don't know yet if there was ever life on Mars, but these are the kinds of rocks that are going to preserve it."
Boston Globe
28-02-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Life on Mars? New Brown University research offers theory for why Earth's neighbor is red.
Related : While the prevailing theory is that 'a dry, rust-like mineral called hematite' gives the planet its hue, researchers say their analysis of data from Martian orbiters, rovers, and laboratory simulations suggests that may not be the case, according to Brown officials. Advertisement 'The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been thought of for hundreds if not thousands of years,' Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral fellow at Brown who started the research as a Ph.D. student at the University of Bern, said in a Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations,' Valantinas said. 'We're not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason for why Mars is red, but it has never been proven the way we proved it now using observational data and novel laboratory methods to essentially make a Martian dust in the lab.' To conduct the study, researchers dug into data from previous Mars missions, 'combining orbital observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter with ground-level measurements from rovers like Curiosity, Pathfinder and Opportunity,' according to Brown. 'Instruments on the orbiters and rovers provided detailed spectral data of the planet's dusty surface,' university officials said. 'These findings were then compared to laboratory experiments, where the team tested how light interacts with ferrihydrite particles and other minerals under simulated Martian conditions.' Hematite usually forms under drier and warmer conditions than ferrihydrite, which is created in 'water-rich environments' where cool water is present, suggesting Mars, billions of years ago, may have once been capable of sustaining liquid water, which is necessary for life, Brown said in a press release. Advertisement 'What we want to understand is the ancient Martian climate and the chemical processes on Mars — not only ancient, but also present,' Valantinas said in a statement. 'Then there's the habitability question: Was there ever life? To understand that, you need to understand the conditions that were present during the time of this mineral formation. 'What we know from this study is the evidence points to ferrihydrite forming, and for that to happen there must have been conditions where oxygen, from air or other sources, and water could react with iron,' Valantinas added. 'Those conditions were very different from today's dry, cold environment. As Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the planet's iconic red appearance.' Researchers will have to wait until samples from Mars are brought back to Earth to confirm their study. NASA said last year samples from the ongoing mission to the Martian surface will not arrive In the meantime, the study's senior author, Related : 'It gives us a better chance to apply principles of mineral formation and conditions to tap back in time,' Mustard said in a statement. 'What's even more important though is the return of the samples from Mars that are being collected right now by Christopher Gavin can be reached at
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What makes Mars the 'Red' Planet? Scientists have some new ideas
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Mars is widely known for its iconic rusty red color — many people even refer to it as just the "Red Planet" — but new research suggests the Martian shade isn't just lovely to look at. The chemistry behind Mars' rosy hue may actually hold important information about our cosmic neighbor. For decades, spacecraft and rovers have gathered data pointing to a familiar explanation behind Mars' redness: the rusting of iron minerals, namely iron oxide, in the planet's dust. That's the same compound that gives your standard "rust" on Earth its red color. Scientists already knew that on Mars, over billions of years, iron oxide has been ground into dust and carried across the planet by powerful winds, a process still shaping the Martian landscape today. However, not all iron oxides are the same, so experts have long debated the precise nature of Martian rust. Understanding how this rust formed offers a crucial glimpse into the planet's past environment — was it once warm and wet, or always cold and dry? And, more importantly, did it ever support life? "We were trying to create a replica Martian dust in the laboratory using different types of iron oxide," Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, formerly at the University of Bern in Switzerland where he started his work with the European Space Agency's (ESA) Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) data, said in a statement. To recreate the Martian dust, the new study's research team used an advanced grinding machine to refine their samples such that they matched the fine, windblown particles found on Mars. The scientists then analyzed these ground-up samples using the same techniques as spacecraft orbiting Mars would, allowing for a direct comparison with real Martian data. "This study is the result of the complementary datasets from the fleet of international missions exploring Mars from orbit and at ground level," Colin Wilson, the TGO and Mars Express project scientist, said in the statement. What they found was that the best match for Mars' red dust is a combination of basaltic volcanic rock and a water-rich iron oxide called ferrihydrite. This discovery is intriguing because ferrihydrite typically forms rapidly in the presence of cool water — meaning it must have originated when liquid water still existed on Mars' surface. Even after billions of years of being ground into dust and scattered by Martian winds, ferrihydrite has retained its watery signature, offering a tantalizing clue about Mars' ancient past. "The major implication is that because ferrihydrite could only have formed when water was still present on the surface, Mars rusted earlier than we previously thought," said Valantinas. "Moreover, the ferrihydrite remains stable under present-day conditions on Mars." Data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter along with ground-based measurements from the Curiosity, Pathfinder and Opportunity rovers further support the identification of ferrihydrite. These observations provide crucial evidence that Mars's red dust retains a signature of its watery past, reinforcing the idea that liquid water once played a key role in shaping the planet's surface. — Perseverance Mars rover finds 'one-of-a-kind treasure' on Red Planet's Silver Mountain — Trump wants the US to land astronauts on Mars soon. Could it happen by 2029? — NASA and General Atomics test nuclear fuel for future moon and Mars missions "We eagerly await the results from upcoming missions like ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover and the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return, which will allow us to probe deeper into what makes Mars red," added Colin. "Some of the samples already collected by NASA's Perseverance rover and awaiting return to Earth include dust; once we get these precious samples into the lab, we'll be able to measure exactly how much ferrihydrite the dust contains, and what this means for our understanding of the history of water — and the possibility for life — on Mars." "Mars is still the Red Planet," added Valantinas. "It's just that our understanding of why Mars is red has been transformed." A paper about these results was published on Feb. 25 in the journal Nature.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
We might be wrong about the color of Mars, scientists say
Scientists might have been wrong about perhaps the most obvious thing about Mars: the red colour that gave it its nickname. Earthlings have known about the existence of Mars, the fourth planet from the sun it also orbits, since ancient times. Although the celestial body is located 140 million miles away from Earth, there's a lot that astronomers know about it. For example, it's a dusty red color. But, new research from the European Space Agency is challenging humanity's understanding of why Mars is called the Red Planet. 'Mars is still the Red Planet. It's just that our understanding of why Mars is red has been transformed,' said Adomas Valantinas, a post-doctoral fellow at Brown University, said in a statement. Valantinas is the lead author of the findings published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. The red dust on Mars is mostly rust. The iron minerals in the soil rusted, similar to how rust forms on Earth. Known as iron oxide, the material has been broken down and spread all around Mars by Martian wind. It's a process that has happened for billions of years, and is still happening today. But, the exact chemical make up of the iron oxide has been debated in recent years. Previous observations did not find evidence of water contained within the iron oxide. So, researchers had posited that the type of iron oxide much have been the mineral hematite and formed under dry surface conditions through reactions with the planet's atmosphere over billions of years – following its early wet period. Using spacecraft observations and new lab techniques, scientists now say that the red color is better suited to iron oxides that contain water. That mineral is known as ferrihydrite, which forms in the presence of cool water. 'We were trying to create a replica martian dust in the laboratory using different types of iron oxide. We found that ferrihydrite mixed with basalt, a volcanic rock, best fits the minerals seen by spacecraft at Mars,' said Valantinas. But, because ferrihydrite could only have formed when water was still present on the surface, the researcher said Mars rusted earlier than they previously thought. 'Moreover, the ferrihydrite remains stable under present-day conditions on Mars,' he noted. The replica Martian dust was created using an advanced grinder, grinding the dust to the equivalent of one-one-hundredth of a human hair. They analyzed the samples using the same techniques as orbiting spacecraft. They used data from the agency's Trace Gas Orbiter, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and rover data to determine particle size and composition to create the right size dust in the lab. Newly-collected samples will help them to learn more down the line. Although, they may have to wait a few years before they can come back to Earth. 'Some of the samples already collected by NASA's Perseverance rover and awaiting return to Earth include dust; once we get these precious samples into the lab, we'll be able to measure exactly how much ferrihydrite the dust contains, and what this means for our understanding of the history of water – and the possibility for life – on Mars,' Colin Wilson, Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express project scientist, said.
The Independent
25-02-2025
- Science
- The Independent
We might be wrong about the color of Mars, scientists say
Scientists might have been wrong about perhaps the most obvious thing about Mars: the red colour that gave it its nickname. Earthlings have known about the existence of Mars, the fourth planet from the sun it also orbits, since ancient times. Although the celestial body is located 140 million miles away from Earth, there's a lot that astronomers know about it. For example, it's a dusty red color. But, new research from the European Space Agency is challenging humanity's understanding of why Mars is called the Red Planet. 'Mars is still the Red Planet. It's just that our understanding of why Mars is red has been transformed,' said Adomas Valantinas, a post-doctoral fellow at Brown University, said in a statement. Valantinas is the lead author of the findings published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. The red dust on Mars is mostly rust. The iron minerals in the soil rusted, similar to how rust forms on Earth. Known as iron oxide, the material has been broken down and spread all around Mars by Martian wind. It's a process that has happened for billions of years, and is still happening today. But, the exact chemical make up of the iron oxide has been debated in recent years. Previous observations did not find evidence of water contained within the iron oxide. So, researchers had posited that the type of iron oxide much have been the mineral hematite and formed under dry surface conditions through reactions with the planet's atmosphere over billions of years – following its early wet period. Using spacecraft observations and new lab techniques, scientists now say that the red color is better suited to iron oxides that contain water. That mineral is known as ferrihydrite, which forms in the presence of cool water. 'We were trying to create a replica martian dust in the laboratory using different types of iron oxide. We found that ferrihydrite mixed with basalt, a volcanic rock, best fits the minerals seen by spacecraft at Mars,' said Valantinas. But, because ferrihydrite could only have formed when water was still present on the surface, the researcher said Mars rusted earlier than they previously thought. 'Moreover, the ferrihydrite remains stable under present-day conditions on Mars,' he noted. The replica Martian dust was created using an advanced grinder, grinding the dust to the equivalent of one-one-hundredth of a human hair. They analyzed the samples using the same techniques as orbiting spacecraft. They used data from the agency's Trace Gas Orbiter, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and rover data to determine particle size and composition to create the right size dust in the lab. Newly-collected samples will help them to learn more down the line. Although, they may have to wait a few years before they can come back to Earth. 'Some of the samples already collected by NASA's Perseverance rover and awaiting return to Earth include dust; once we get these precious samples into the lab, we'll be able to measure exactly how much ferrihydrite the dust contains, and what this means for our understanding of the history of water – and the possibility for life – on Mars,' Colin Wilson, Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express project scientist, said.
