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| Testing for Life on Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
06/12/08 |
| Controversy still surrounds the life-detection results from NASA's Viking mission of 30 years ago. The Phoenix mission now on Mars may help answer questions raised by Viking, but researchers will need to be able to spot the difference between chemical and biological signatures. |
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| Making Sense of Mars Methane |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/09/08 |
| Research on methane at a Mexican salt flat could help reveal the source of methane that has been detected in the atmosphere of Mars. But first scientists have to decipher the unique – and seemingly contradictory - isotopic signature of the Mexican methane. |
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| Biological Stowaways on Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
06/05/08 |
| Astrobiologists hope to find evidence for life on Mars. Sending spacecraft from Earth to study the planet could introduce biological contamination, however, and lead to a false detection of alien life. New research adds to these concerns with evidence that ATP -- an energy-storage molecule vital to life on Earth. |
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| Amino Acids: In Hot Water |
| Topic: Meteorites, Comets and Asteroids |
06/02/08 |
| Meteorites shower the Earth with amino acids. A new project is exploring how long amino acids could survive on asteroids, meteorites, and the early Earth. The results could help scientists pinpoint how and where life on our planet began. |
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| Targeting a Lunar Bulls-Eye |
| Topic: Moon to Mars |
05/29/08 |
| Using Earth-based radar, scientists have studied ejecta material from the moon's Orientale impact basin. The new data has implications for future robotic and human missions to explore the lunar south pole. |
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| Can You Hear Me Now? |
| Topic: Mars |
05/27/08 |
A glitch in the communications hardware of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has caused a delay in the Phoenix mission.
UPDATE: MRO received information from the Phoenix Mars Lander Tuesday evening and relayed the information to Earth. |
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| MRO Snaps Phoenix |
| Topic: Mars |
05/27/08 |
| NASA has achieved a photographic first. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of Phoenix, hanging below its parachute, as the lander descended through the martian atmosphere. |
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| Martian Touchdown |
| Topic: Mars |
05/26/08 |
| NASA´s Phoenix lander has touched down safely on Mars and sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet´s northern arctic plains. Over the next three months, it will look for evidence of liquid water in Mars´s recent past. |
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| Iron-Coated Fossils |
| Topic: Mars |
05/26/08 |
| Fossilized microbes found in Spain´s Rio Tinto valley may guide the search for past life on Mars. |
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| Building Life's Foundations |
| Topic: Mars |
05/22/08 |
| New research conducted by the MARTE project team has shown that microbes can make barren areas suitable for life. This could have important implications for the search for life on Mars and other planets. |
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