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Hot Topic
Solar System
Mars
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| Mars and Muddied Waters? |
| Topic: Mars |
10/29/03 |
| Can Mars support liquid water? So fundamental a question was hoped to be resolved with high-resolution orbital images, but the debate on whether Mars was once wet and warm has a twist: liquid water may be trapped in the porous soil, even well below its normal freezing point. |
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| Martian History: Written in Stone |
| Topic: Mars |
10/15/03 |
| A key goal for the Mars Exploration Rovers is to find out what Mars rocks are made of. That's no simple matter, requiring several tools mounted on the Instrument Deployment Device. One, the Alpha-Particle-X-Ray Spectrometer, analyzes many of the chemical elements in a rock or soil surface. |
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| What Iron Can Tell Us about Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
09/24/03 |
| To the Mars Exploration Rover mission, water, past or present, is the grail. One way to look for past water is to analyze soil and rock surfaces for evidence of iron-containing minerals (or compounds), which differ depending on whether the environment in the past was wet or dry. |
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| Chomping on Nano-Nuggets |
| Topic: Mars |
09/17/03 |
| Eight years ago, nanometer-sized features resembling bacteria were discovered in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. Although some scientists think nanometer-sized life can't exist, others contend that nanobacteria are the new frontier in life science. |
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| Surveying the Scene - Martian Style |
| Topic: Mars |
09/08/03 |
| After the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, land in January 2004, they'll take their first look around, literally, with their Pancam imaging system, a pair of cameras capable of panning 360-degrees around the rover's mast. Pancam will make the sharpest pictures yet of Mars' surface. |
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| Dialing Up Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
08/29/03 |
| For those interested in understanding the red planet, a scientific stowaway aboard the two NASA Mars' probes promises to offer a unique view. A Cornell collaboration with Bill Nye, 'the Science Guy', and schoolchildren has launched the first interplanetary sundial. |
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| When Hubble Saw Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
08/28/03 |
| If your views of Mars were somehow obscured by clouds or city lights, what the Hubble Space Telescope saw on the martian opposition provides a map and guide for conducting a grand tour of the red planet. |
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| Mars Close Approach |
| Topic: Mars |
08/27/03 |
| Never previously in modern human history has Mars been as bright or as close to Earth as tonight. Look for it in the night sky, as it will be easily recognized by its red tinge. As with all planets, its light will also stand out from the background of stars, because it will not appear to flicker. |
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| Mars Up Close |
| Topic: Mars |
08/11/03 |
| The Mars Exploration Rovers provide geologists with their first chance to do field work on Mars, so the rovers took along the space version of a common geologist's tool, the pocket magnifying glass or hand lens. |
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| Picking on Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
07/29/03 |
| An ancient dry lakebed called Gusev Crater is a landing target for the Mars Exploration Rover early next year. The long arduous process of finalizing what are called paleolake sites is described, and the trip is surprising--from Paris to Mountain View, California. |
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