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Hot Topic
Solar System
Mars
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| The Best and Worst of Mars' Coverage |
| Topic: Mars |
03/27/04 |
| Reader comments on Mars missions coverage is compiled with a few answers from the scientists on the front-line of the most recent discoveries. |
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| Different Flavors of Blueberries |
| Topic: Mars |
03/27/04 |
| Sampling five differently colored soil spots, the Opportunity rover team began seeing the variety of spherules or 'blueberries' that have scattered across the rover's landing site. As a key indicator that once a shallow, salty and acidic lake once gently lapped against these rocks, the blueberries are rusted and iron-rich. |
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| Around the Hills in 90 Sols |
| Topic: Mars |
03/27/04 |
| The Mars Spirit rover will soon turn its first three months on the surface into an extended mission schedule. The team that had to rotate their sleep and work cycles to accomodate the longer martian days will get relief. |
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| Opportunity Finds Beachfront Property on Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
03/23/04 |
| NASA scientists have determined that the bedrock outcrop in Eagle Crater, where Opportunity landed, formed in liquid water. The new discovery makes Meridiani Planum a prime target for future exploration. |
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| Iron Blueberries |
| Topic: Mars |
03/22/04 |
| MER mission scientists have found hematite in the small spherical "blueberries" embedded in the rock outcrop near Opportunity's landing site. They speculate that the broad plain surrounding Eagle Crater, where the rover landed, may be littered with blueberries. |
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| The Big Bounce |
| Topic: Mars |
03/14/04 |
| JPL's Tom Rivellini led the team that worked on engineering the successful airbag landing on Mars. His first person account of test and design iterations gives insight into how a complex challenge evolved into a fully-functioning lander on the surface of another planet. |
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| You Are Here |
| Topic: Mars |
03/11/04 |
| The Spirit rover captured a unique perspective on the Earth as seen from the surface of another planet. Because Mars is beyond Earth's orbit, our home world appears to follow the Sun's path, which makes glare-free photography of Earth difficult. |
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| The Case for Spirit's Water |
| Topic: Mars |
03/06/04 |
| If the Opportunity site was 'drenched' in water, the Spirit site also has revealed the interior of a volcanic rock called Humphrey, which shows evidence of perhaps bringing up subsurface water with magma. |
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| Bad Moon Rising |
| Topic: Mars |
03/06/04 |
| The Opportunity rover captured an image of a solar eclipse from the surface of Mars. While not a rare event on the red planet, capturing the image of one of Mars' two moons as thet pass in front of the Sun can tell atmospheric scientists much about what lies between the rover and the upper air layer. |
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| Evidence of Water Found on Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
03/03/04 |
| Opportunity has found definitive evidence that liquid water was once present in Meridiani Planum - enough water to provide a habitat suitable for life as we know it. The evidence comes from a detailed study of El Capitan, a narrow section of the rock outcrop that is exposed in the crater where the rover landed. |
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