Mars Express acquires spectacular views of chaotic terrain on Red Planet

November 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Istvan Szunyogh, Texas A and M professor of atmospheric sciences has been awarded a NASA grant to analyze and forecast Martian weather. Mars is the most Earth-like planet we know, but it is still quite different.

November 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) have detected a series of depressions on Mars that may harbor caves beneath them, which could provide shelter for future Mars exploration missions. The depressions were detected by the USGS Astrogeology Science Center using high-resolution images conveyed through Mars-orbiting satellites.

November 3rd, 2009 SYDNEY - A recent NASA report has suggested that Martian water most likely flowed as slurries of mud rather than trickling streams. According to ABC News, the report, which compared signs of recent water activity in gullies on Mars with similar deposits on Earth, has implications for searching for evidence of water on the red planet.

October 17th, 2009 LONDON - The sun can block direct communication between Earth and Mars for weeks at a time, cutting off any potential mission to the red planet. The solution - satellites on special orbits around Mars.

October 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Mars Express has imaged Daedalia Planum, a sparsely cratered, untextured plain on the Red Planet, featuring solidified lava flows of varying ages. Daedalia Planum lies to the south-east of Arsia Mons, one of the largest volcanoes on Mars.

September 19th, 2009 LONDON - Recent laboratory studies have shown that Mars is not red due to the rocks being rusted by the water that once flooded the planet, but due to the ongoing grinding of surface rocks, which forms the red dust. These findings, which open up the debate about the history of water on Mars and whether it has ever been habitable, have been presented at the European Planetary Science Congress by Dr.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found evidence on the Martian terrain that points towards a recent ice age on the Red Planet. The research, by Samuel C.

August 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers have confirmed that an email promising a "Mars spectacular" event on August 27, when the Red Planet will look as large as the full moon, is nothing but a hoax. According to a report in National Geographic News, the anonymous message from an unknown part of the globe says that the red planet "will look as large as the full moon" in the night sky, and that "no one alive today will ever see this again." The claim has been bombarding people's inboxes worldwide every summer for five years.

July 24th, 2009 SYDNEY - Mars may have been a seething cauldron for nearly a 100 million years after its formation, thwarting evolution of life on the planet, according to an analysis of meteorites. The research has shown that the red planet remained excessively hot - with temperatures over 1,000 degrees Celsius - for 100 million years following its formation.

July 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - It's been decades since they set foot on the moon, but the pioneers of the Apollo programme remain committed to exploring space with the goal of sending a human to Mars. Seven astronauts from the Apollo programme talked with journalists Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has determined that many characteristics of Mars are quite similar to planet Earth, including its landscape, history of water, soil and even its weather. The research, by Mark Lemmon, a professor of atmospheric sciences, Texas A and M University, US, points out that last year's Phoenix Mars Lander mission keeps revealing secrets about the planet, answering some questions but raising other big ones.

June 27th, 2009 LONDON - A new hypothesis has suggested that Mars may have a water table hidden underground, despite satellite data suggesting otherwise. Today the small amount of water detected on the planet is locked in the polar ice caps, but recently discovered geological features suggest liquid water once flowed on its surface.

May 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - China's first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1, is expected to be launched in the second half of this year, according to an official of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The probe had passed test of the research phase, Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of SAST Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the third Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition.

May 28th, 2009 SHANGHAI - China's first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1, is expected to be launched in the second half of this year, an official of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) said Thursday. The probe had passed test of the research phase, Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of SAST, told the third Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition that began here Thursday.

March 20th, 2009 PARIS - Mars Express has uncovered geological evidence suggesting that some depositional process, revealed by erosion, has been at work on large scales in the equatorial regions of the Red Planet, which would shed new light on the past climate of Mars. The evidence comes from the mineralogical composition of the Aram Chaos region, a crater 280 km in diameter lying almost directly on the Martian equator.