Mars quite similar to planet Earth

September 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of European astronomers said Wednesday that they had found the first known rocky planet outside the solar system. The find by European Southern Observatory scientists in Garching, Germany, is an important step forward in answering the question of whether humans are alone in the universe, because it is the first of the more than 300 known exoplanets - as planets outside the solar system are known - that is not large and gaseous.

September 16th, 2009 Found: Firm place to stand outside solar systemWASHINGTON — Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot. As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system.

August 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - The Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication Complex outside Canberra, Australia, has sent out more than 25,000 messages to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet outside our solar system, which might host life. According to a report carried out in www.news.com.au, the messages have come from 195 countries including some from places such as the Vatican city, Antarctica and Kosovo.

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.

August 5th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have solved the mystery of the rocky Mars "monolith" that resembled the black monolith from Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", and have determined that it is just a broken boulder. When a high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the monolith last July, speculation was rife that it appeared to show evidence there was once life on the Red Planet.

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 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found that the surface of Mars was molten for more than 100 million years after it formed, preventing any early life evolving on the planet. According to a report in Discovery News, the findings are based on an analysis of rare Martian meteorites at NASA's Johnson Space Center in the US.

July 21st, 2009 New NASA boss: Astronauts on Mars in his lifetimeWASHINGTON — NASA's new boss said Tuesday he will be "incredibly disappointed" if people aren't on Mars — or venturing somewhere beyond it — in his lifetime. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., who's 62, said his ultimate goal isn't just Mars — it's anywhere far from Earth.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Parts of Mars resemble places on Earth, including its landscape, history of water, soil and even its weather, says a study. Mark Lemmon, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, long involved with Mars missions, says last year's Phoenix Mars Lander mission keeps revealing secrets about the planet, answering some questions but raising other big ones.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, a group of international scientists took the help of a lunar eclipse to take a snapshot of earth's chemical fingerprint, which could help to identify planets most similar to earth where life may be thriving. The team used some of the world's largest optical and infrared telescopes located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) to observe light reflected from the moon toward the earth during a lunar eclipse on August 16, 2008.

June 5th, 2009 LONDON - The rover Opportunity has found six new iron meteorites on Mars, which may reveal how much water they have come into contact with since they landed on the planet millions or billions of years ago. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity have previously found three iron meteorites, whose shiny, metallic appearance makes them stand out against the dusty Martian surface.

May 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists, using multispectral images obtained from the Messenger spacecraft, are trying to reveal the origin and evolution of the planet Mercury. Mercury's interior is thought to generally resemble that of the Earth and Mars.

April 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The teams operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is on alert for an upcoming dust storm season, which could be severe enough to minimize activities of the rovers. On April 21, Mars will be at the closest point to the Sun in the planet's 23-month, elliptical orbit.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of scientists who worked on the Phoenix Mars lander last year say they have found evidence of liquid salt water on the red planet. An analysis of photographs from the lander that explored Mars for six months shows drops of what could be salty, liquid water on the legs of the lander.

January 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of NASA scientists has found proof of the existence of methane gas on Mars, raising questions about the possibility of life on the red planet, the US space agency said Thursday. In an article published in the journal Science, researchers said they found seasonal variations in methane in the planet's atmosphere that could be evidence of geological or biological processes.