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Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The secret of why Mars grew cold and dry may be locked away in its rocks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The discovery by the Mars rovers of carbonate in sedimentary rock on the Red Planet has enabled planetary scientists to rewind the clock and tell the tale of how Mars' warmer, watery climate 3.5 billion years ago changed to the barren, dry and cold environment that it is today. We know that, in the distant past, Mars was warmer than it is today and had liquid water on its surface. We can see evidence for this in the form of ancient river channels, deltas, lakes and even the eroded coastlines of a large sea in the north. Sometime in the past 3.5 billion years, Mars' atmosphere thinned and its water either froze or was lost to space. The question is, how did that happen? NASA's MAVEN – Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN – mission arrived at the Red Planet in 2014 charged with studying the loss rate of Mars' atmospheric molecules to space. However, scientists know that the carbon in Mars' atmosphere, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide, cannot have been mostly lost to space. That's because the lighter carbon-12 would preferentially escape rather than the marginally heavier carbon-13 (the difference between the two being one extra neutron), but we don't see an excess of carbon-13 in Mars' atmosphere today. The alternative is that Mars' atmospheric carbon must have rained out of the atmosphere and subsequently been locked away in the ground, in the form of carbonates embedded in sedimentary rock. The trouble is, searches for carbonates on Mars had always found nothing, until relatively recently. Both current Mars rover missions – Curiosity climbing Mount Sharp in Gale crater and Perseverance exploring the river delta in Jezero Crater – have discovered carbonates, in the sedimentary rock that form Mount Sharp, and stretching tens of kilometers along the rim of Jezero. Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it can therefore regulate a planet's climate. Losing that carbon dioxide as it transforms into carbonate rocks would have had a drastic effect on Mars' climate. To determine just how drastic, planetary scientists led by Edwin Kite of the University of Chicago modeled how losing its atmospheric carbon in carbonate rocks has affected how Mars' climate has changed over the past 3.5 billion years. This is coupled with the increase in solar luminosity as the sun brightens with age (in just over a billion years' time the sun will be too luminous and hot for life on Earth to survive). As the sun grew hotter, it breathed more heat onto Mars, increasing the planet's average temperature. This led to more precipitation, causing the carbon dioxide to rain out and become locked away as carbonate. With the loss of the carbon dioxide's greenhouse effects, Mars cooled and grew drier. Intermittent spells of high temperatures and shallow liquid water were caused by orbital variations, similar to the Milankovitch cycles on Earth, which are periodic variations in the shape of Earth's orbit and the tilt of our planet's axis caused by the gravitational forces of the other planets, and which affect our long-term climate. The difference between Earth and Mars is that our planet has been able to manage a continuous outgassing of carbon dioxide, mostly from volcanism, to maintain its presence in our atmosphere. Mars, which is about half the diameter of Earth, lost heat from its core more rapidly, which slowed down and ultimately – as far as we can tell – stopped Mars' volcanic activity. With no active volcanoes, or at least very few, there was nothing to replenish the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These findings help explain the geological evidence of subsequent but increasingly less frequent bursts of liquid water on the surface of Mars during the past 3.5 billion years. RELATED STORIES — Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the Red Planet — Is the US forfeiting its Red Planet leadership to China's Mars Sample Return plan? — NASA's Curiosity rover takes a closer look at 'spiderwebs' on Mars | Space photo of the day for July 1, 2025 There is one caveat, which is that the study assumes that the abundance of carbonates at Gale crater is typical of the entire Red Planet. Carbonate samples need to be identified in many locations before we can say for sure that this was how Mars lost its greenhouse gas. The research is published in Nature.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The secret of why Mars grew cold and dry may be locked away in its rocks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The discovery by the Mars rovers of carbonate in sedimentary rock on the Red Planet has enabled planetary scientists to rewind the clock and tell the tale of how Mars' warmer, watery climate 3.5 billion years ago changed to the barren, dry and cold environment that it is today. We know that, in the distant past, Mars was warmer than it is today and had liquid water on its surface. We can see evidence for this in the form of ancient river channels, deltas, lakes and even the eroded coastlines of a large sea in the north. Sometime in the past 3.5 billion years, Mars' atmosphere thinned and its water either froze or was lost to space. The question is, how did that happen? NASA's MAVEN – Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN – mission arrived at the Red Planet in 2014 charged with studying the loss rate of Mars' atmospheric molecules to space. However, scientists know that the carbon in Mars' atmosphere, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide, cannot have been mostly lost to space. That's because the lighter carbon-12 would preferentially escape rather than the marginally heavier carbon-13 (the difference between the two being one extra neutron), but we don't see an excess of carbon-13 in Mars' atmosphere today. The alternative is that Mars' atmospheric carbon must have rained out of the atmosphere and subsequently been locked away in the ground, in the form of carbonates embedded in sedimentary rock. The trouble is, searches for carbonates on Mars had always found nothing, until relatively recently. Both current Mars rover missions – Curiosity climbing Mount Sharp in Gale crater and Perseverance exploring the river delta in Jezero Crater – have discovered carbonates, in the sedimentary rock that form Mount Sharp, and stretching tens of kilometers along the rim of Jezero. Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it can therefore regulate a planet's climate. Losing that carbon dioxide as it transforms into carbonate rocks would have had a drastic effect on Mars' climate. To determine just how drastic, planetary scientists led by Edwin Kite of the University of Chicago modeled how losing its atmospheric carbon in carbonate rocks has affected how Mars' climate has changed over the past 3.5 billion years. This is coupled with the increase in solar luminosity as the sun brightens with age (in just over a billion years' time the sun will be too luminous and hot for life on Earth to survive). As the sun grew hotter, it breathed more heat onto Mars, increasing the planet's average temperature. This led to more precipitation, causing the carbon dioxide to rain out and become locked away as carbonate. With the loss of the carbon dioxide's greenhouse effects, Mars cooled and grew drier. Intermittent spells of high temperatures and shallow liquid water were caused by orbital variations, similar to the Milankovitch cycles on Earth, which are periodic variations in the shape of Earth's orbit and the tilt of our planet's axis caused by the gravitational forces of the other planets, and which affect our long-term climate. The difference between Earth and Mars is that our planet has been able to manage a continuous outgassing of carbon dioxide, mostly from volcanism, to maintain its presence in our atmosphere. Mars, which is about half the diameter of Earth, lost heat from its core more rapidly, which slowed down and ultimately – as far as we can tell – stopped Mars' volcanic activity. With no active volcanoes, or at least very few, there was nothing to replenish the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These findings help explain the geological evidence of subsequent but increasingly less frequent bursts of liquid water on the surface of Mars during the past 3.5 billion years. RELATED STORIES — Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the Red Planet — Is the US forfeiting its Red Planet leadership to China's Mars Sample Return plan? — NASA's Curiosity rover takes a closer look at 'spiderwebs' on Mars | Space photo of the day for July 1, 2025 There is one caveat, which is that the study assumes that the abundance of carbonates at Gale crater is typical of the entire Red Planet. Carbonate samples need to be identified in many locations before we can say for sure that this was how Mars lost its greenhouse gas. The research is published in Nature.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Solar 'cannonballs' may have stripped Mars of its water, long-awaited study reveals
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. After nearly a decade in orbit, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has, for the first time, directly observed the process that scientists had long suspected was responsible for stripping Mars of its atmosphere. The findings, published May 28 in the journal Science Advances, could help answer a longstanding question about how Mars transformed from a potentially habitable world with rivers and lakes into the mostly-frozen desert we see today. Although Mars today is dry, cold and virtually airless, its surface is carved with unmistakable evidence of a wetter past. Features resembling ancient river valleys, lake beds, and minerals that only form in the presence of water point to long-lived lakes, possibly even shallow seas, that flowed on Mars' surface billions of years ago. For liquid water to persist, however, Mars would have needed a much denser atmosphere to trap heat and sustain higher surface pressure. Understanding when and how that atmosphere vanished is essential to reconstructing Mars' climate evolution, and to determining how long the planet may have remained habitable. Over the past decade, scientists have gathered mounting evidence that solar wind — the constant stream of ionized particles emitted from the sun — and radiation stripped away much of the Martian atmosphere. Among the most significant mechanisms behind this erosion is a process called sputtering, where high-energy particles from solar wind collide with the planet's upper atmosphere. These collisions, in principle, transfer enough energy to neutral atoms and help break them free from the planet's gravitational pull, flinging them into space. "It's like doing a cannonball in a pool," Shannon Curry, the principal investigator of the MAVEN mission at the University of Colorado Boulder who led the new study, said in a statement. "The cannonball, in this case, is the heavy ions crashing into the atmosphere really fast and splashing neutral atoms and molecules out." While sputtering had long been suspected as a key player in Mars' climate evolution, this is the first time the process has been observed directly. Using nine years of data from the MAVEN spacecraft, Curry and her colleagues captured present-day sputtering on Mars. Related: NASA rover discovers out-of-place 'Skull' on Mars, and scientists are baffled By combining data from three of MAVEN's instruments, the researchers created a detailed map of argon, a noble gas, in Mars' upper atmosphere. Argon is an ideal tracer for this kind of atmospheric escape because it is chemically inert, heavy, and resistant to becoming charged. This makes it unlikely to interact with other atmospheric processes, meaning any significant loss of argon serves as a clear tracer of sputtering. Indeed, MAVEN detected the highest concentrations of argon at altitudes where solar wind particles collide with the Martian atmosphere, the new study reports. Its presence was much higher than where scientists would expect it to naturally waft under the planet's gravity, so the findings provide direct evidence that sputtering is actively lifting and removing the molecules from Mars, according to the new study. This process may even have been the driving force behind the loss of Mars' once-thick atmosphere and, with it, its ability to host liquid water on the surface, the study notes. MAVEN's data also revealed that this process occurs at a rate four times higher than previously predicted by models, according to the new study. It became more pronounced during solar storms, potentially offering a glimpse into how much more intense the process might have been during Mars' early history when the planet was more vulnerable to the sun's energy. RELATED STORIES —Scientists find hint of hidden liquid water ocean deep below Mars' surface —Lights on Mars! NASA rover photographs visible auroras on Red Planet for the first time —Perseverance rover rolls onto 'Crocodile' plateau on Mars to hunt for super-old rocks Scientists suspect this process was especially intense billions of years ago, when the sun was more active and Mars had already lost its protective magnetic field. Without that magnetic shield, the Martian atmosphere was left vulnerable to the full force of the solar wind, accelerating its erosion and pushing the planet past a tipping point where liquid water could no longer persist. "These results establish sputtering's role in the loss of Mars' atmosphere and in determining the history of water on Mars," Curry said in the statement. To fully determine whether sputtering was indeed the primary driver of Mars' long-term climate change, scientists will need to peer billions of years into the past using models, isotopic data, and ancient climate clues. Only then can they judge whether sputtering merely grazed the edges of Mars' atmosphere — or stripped it bare.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dozens of NASA space missions could be axed under Trump's budget: Here's a look at 6
Dozens of NASA's missions to explore the cosmos could be in jeopardy under a budget proposal from the White House. President Donald Trump's administration, which released an initial budget proposal May 2 for the U.S. space agency, dropped more details Friday, May 30 about just which NASA programs it looks to cancel. All told, the budget request for the next fiscal year proposes slashing NASA funding by nearly 25% – from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion – mostly by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science portfolio. Trump's proposal, which would need congressional approval, has been lauded by acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro for "still prioritizing critical science and technology research," she said in a statement. But in its own statement, the Planetary Society called the proposed budget "an extinction-level event for the space agency's most productive, successful, and broadly supported activity: science." A total of 41 science projects would get the ax under the proposal, which would be NASA's biggest single-year cut in the agency's history, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space exploration advocacy organization. Many of the science missions Trump looks to cancel are still in development, while others are extended operations with uncrewed vehicles already deployed to orbit. Here's a look at six different types of space missions, from Mars exploration to future moon landings, that could be under threat if Trump's budget were to go into effect. For years, NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has sought to bring back a collection of rocks that could reveal details about potential past life on the Red Planet. The agency's Perseverance rover has been scooping up and storing intriguing rock samples since it first landed in 2021 in the Jezero Crater. But ballooning costs and mission delays have hampered both NASA and the European Space Agency in executing a plan to actually retrieve and transport the samples to Earth for scientists to study further. Meanwhile, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN are two spacecrafts that have been orbiting Mars for years. While those missions could be eliminated, Trump looks to inject another $1 billion to tap the private sector to help lay the groundwork for future Mars exploration. That includes establishing a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). The program would operate similar to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by awarding contracts to private companies that would develop spacesuits, vehicles and other technology aimed at reaching the Red Planet. The New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close when it flew by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015. In 2019, the space probe reached the Kuiper belt – a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune – where it continues to make discoveries about the outer solar system. The Juno probe, meanwhile, continues to reveal new insights into the gas giant Jupiter and its Jovian moons nine years after arriving in 2016. The spacecraft recently relayed data unmasking the harsh environments of both Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io. NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule – both seen as centerpieces in the effort to return Americans to the moon – may have their days numbered. The SLS and Orion, which have both launched just once on an uncrewed mission in 2022 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, are due to play a role in NASA's lunar ambitions under the Artemis campaign. But Trump seeks to phase out both the SLS and the Orion after just two more missions. That means Artemis II astronauts would still ride an Orion capsule around the moon following liftoff using the SLS rocket as early as 2026. NASA's plans also call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board a SpaceX Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface as early as 2027. Four years ago, NASA selected two missions to Venus under its Discovery program, focused on developing spaceflights to study our solar system. DAVINCI is a planned mission managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for an orbiter and atmospheric descent probe to reach Venus. Its counterpart, VERITAS, is another upcoming mission to map the surface of the planet in high resolution that would be managed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Both spacecraft would have been the first NASA vehicles to explore Venus since the 1990s. NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which gathered and returned a sample of asteroid Bennu in September 2023, had been renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and sent on a path that would allow it to meet up with an infamous asteroid in 2029. That asteroid is name Apophis, and it initially posed a sizable threat to Earth when it was first discovered in 2004 before scientists eventually calculated that its trajectory was harmless. OSIRIS-APEX was meant to spend 18 months mapping the asteroid's surface and analyzing its chemical makeup during a rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029 after the asteroid has a close encounter with Earth. Scientists had considered the mission an invaluable endeavor to allow NASA and other space agency's to build up planetary defense capabilities if a space rock ever posed a threat. The Chandra X-ray Observatory has spent more than 25 years detecting exotic environments in the cosmos to help astronomers understand the structure and evolution of the universe. The space telescope, which launched in 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, continues to provide data allowing scientists to make new cosmic discoveries. While the observatory is targeted under Trump's budget proposal, other famous space telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope would remain in operation. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Rick Neale, USA TODAY Network Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's budget targets dozens of NASA space missions: Here's a look
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump looks to axe many NASA space missions that launched from Florida: Here's a look at 6
Dozens of NASA's missions to explore the cosmos could be in jeopardy under a budget proposal from the White House. President Donald Trump's administration, which released an initial budget proposal May 2 for the U.S. space agency, dropped more details Friday, May 30, about just which NASA programs it looks to cancel. All told, the budget request for the next fiscal year proposes slashing NASA funding by nearly 25% – from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion – mostly by eliminating a significant portion of the agency's science portfolio. Trump's proposal, which would need congressional approval, has been lauded by acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro for "still prioritizing critical science and technology research," she said in a statement. But in its own statement, the Planetary Society called the proposed budget "an extinction-level event for the space agency's most productive, successful, and broadly supported activity: science." A total of 41 science projects would get the ax under the proposal, which would be NASA's biggest single-year cut in the agency's history, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space exploration advocacy organization. Many of the science missions Trump looks to cancel are still in development, while others are extended operations with uncrewed vehicles already deployed to orbit. Many of the missions have launched or would get off the ground from Florida's Space Coast. Here's a look at six different types of space missions, from Mars exploration to future moon landings, that could be under threat if Trump's budget were to go into effect. For years, NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has sought to bring back a collection of rocks that could reveal details about potential past life on the Red Planet. The agency's Perseverance rover has been scooping up and storing intriguing rock samples since it first landed in 2021 in the Jezero Crater. But ballooning costs and mission delays have hampered both NASA and the European Space Agency in executing a plan to actually retrieve and transport the samples to Earth for scientists to study further. Meanwhile, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN are two spacecrafts that have been orbiting Mars for years. All three spacecraft – Perseverance and the two orbiters – launched on rockets from what is now called Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. While those missions could be eliminated, Trump looks to inject another $1 billion to tap the private sector to help lay the groundwork for future Mars exploration. That includes establishing a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). The program would operate similar to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by awarding contracts to private companies that would develop spacesuits, vehicles and other technology aimed at reaching the Red Planet. Launching in 2006 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base (now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,) the New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close when it flew by the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015. In 2019, the space probe reached the Kuiper belt – a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune – where it continues to make discoveries about the outer solar system. The Juno probe, meanwhile, continues to reveal new insights into the gas giant Jupiter and its Jovian moons nine years after arriving in 2016. The spacecraft, which launched in August 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, recently relayed data unmasking the harsh environments of both Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io. NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule – both seen as centerpieces in the effort to return Americans to the moon – may have their days numbered. The SLS and Orion, which have both launched just once on an uncrewed mission in 2022 from Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, are due to play a role in NASA's lunar ambitions under the Artemis campaign. But Trump seeks to phase out both the SLS and the Orion after just two more missions. That means Artemis II astronauts would still ride an Orion capsule around the moon following liftoff using the SLS rocket as early as 2026. NASA's plans also call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board a SpaceX Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface as early as 2027. Four years ago, NASA selected two missions to Venus under its Discovery program, focused on developing spaceflights to study our solar system. DAVINCI is a planned mission managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for an orbiter and atmospheric descent probe to reach Venus. Its counterpart, VERITAS, is another upcoming mission to map the surface of the planet in high resolution that would be managed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Both spacecraft would have been the first NASA vehicles to explore Venus since the 1990s. Launched in 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which gathered and returned a sample of asteroid Bennu in September 2023, had been renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and sent on a path that would allow it to meet up with an infamous asteroid in 2029. That asteroid is name Apophis, and it initially posed a sizable threat to Earth when it was first discovered in 2004 before scientists eventually calculated that its trajectory was harmless. OSIRIS-APEX was meant to spend 18 months mapping the asteroid's surface and analyzing its chemical makeup during a rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029 after the asteroid has a close encounter with Earth. Scientists had considered the mission an invaluable endeavor to allow NASA and other space agency's to build up planetary defense capabilities if a space rock ever posed a threat. The Chandra X-ray Observatory has spent more than 25 years detecting exotic environments in the cosmos to help astronomers understand the structure and evolution of the universe. The space telescope, which launched in 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, continues to provide data allowing scientists to make new cosmic discoveries. While the observatory is targeted under Trump's budget proposal, other famous space telescopes like the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope would remain in operation. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Rick Neale, FLORIDA TODAY Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Trump's budget targets several NASA missions from Florida: What to know
