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Hot Topic
Solar System
Mars
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| Is There Life on Mars? Ask a Magnet. |
| Topic: Mars |
05/05/08 |
| Magnetite, a type of iron oxide, is common on both Earth and Mars, and appears in many forms. On Earth, some of those forms are produced only by bacteria and have unique magnetic signatures. Soon Sam Kim has developed a means of detecting this biologically-produced magnetite help in the search for life on Mars. |
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| NASA´s Wine Sniffer |
| Topic: Mars |
03/03/08 |
| A detector designed to search for signs of life on Mars may prove useful closer to home. It turns out the device also excels at identifying the components of red wine and other foods and beverages that can cause headaches, or in extreme cases, even lead to strokes. |
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| Life on Mars - Viking Revisited |
| Topic: Mars |
11/26/07 |
| The Viking missions to Mars tried to find evidence for life on the planet's surface, but the results of those experiments were frustratingly ambiguous. Joop Houtkooper recently has taken another look at the data, and he suspects that Viking may have discovered Martian microbes after all. |
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| Phoenix Takes Flight |
| Topic: Mars |
09/03/07 |
| Phoenix, NASA´s latest mission to Mars, will land in the planet´s northern polar region. It will dig down into the permafrost, which lies just below the surface, and look for signs of past habitability. |
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| Looking for Microbial Martians |
| Topic: Mars |
02/05/07 |
| A miniature detector, 1 million times more sensitive than the ones carried by Viking, will search for amino acids on Mars. The detector will be sent to Mars aboard the European Space Agency´s ExoMars spacecraft, scheduled for a 2013 launch. |
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| Martian Poles in the Swiss Alps |
| Topic: Mars |
10/26/06 |
| A conference on Mars Polar Science recently met in Davos, Switzerland. By studying the poles, scientists are learning about the history of water on the planet, and how that has affected Mars' potential for life. |
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| Mars: Time for a New Chronology? |
| Topic: Mars |
10/16/06 |
| Mars Express has provided the most detailed map to date of Mars´ mineralogy and has answered some longstanding questions. Based on this new information, a group of European scientists has proposed new names for the planet´s geologic eras. But not everyone agrees with the need for change. |
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| Martian Clay |
| Topic: Mars |
04/24/06 |
Although NASA´s Mars missions grab most of the headlines in the US media, the European Space Agency (ESA) recently announced that its Mars Express orbiter has uncovered an important clue to the history of water – and possibly life – on Mars.
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| MRO Hits Its Mark |
| Topic: Mars |
03/11/06 |
| The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter peeked from behind the Red Planet and told mission scientists it survived the journey. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, the scientists now plan to reduce its current elongated orbit around Mars into a more circular one. |
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| MRO Approaches Mars |
| Topic: Mars |
03/09/06 |
| On Friday, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will reach Mars. Will it start orbiting the planet, fly right past it, or dive too close to the atmosphere and burn up? Because the spacecraft must loop behind the planet, mission scientists won´t know the orbiter´s fate for many nail-biting minutes. |
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