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A Fresh Look at Older Data Yields a Surprise Near the Martian Equator

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Scientists taking a new look at older data from NASA's longest-operating Mars orbiter have discovered evidence of significant hydration near the Martian equator -- a mysterious signature in a region of the Red Planet where planetary scientists figure ice shouldn't exist. Jack Wilson, a post-doctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, led a team that reprocessed data collected from 2002 to 2009 by the neutron spectrometer instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. In bringing the lower-resolution compositional data into sharper focus, the scientists spotted unexpectedly high amounts of hydrogen -- which at high latitudes is a sign of buried water ice -- around sections of the Martian equator. An accessible supply of water ice near the equator would be of interest in planning astronaut exploration of Mars. The amount of delivered mass needed for human exploration could be greatly reduced by using Martian natural res...
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If Space Aliens Are Looking Our Way, Here's What They Might See

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We see them — but can they see us? Robert Wells, a doctoral student in mathematics and physics at Queens University in Ireland, couldn’t get that question out of his mind. In recent years, astronomers have discovered more than 2,500 planets orbiting other stars by observing the subtle dimming of light as these exoplanets pass in front of their host stars. Wells wondered if alien scientists on some distant world might be doing exactly same thing but in the opposite direction: pointing a telescope our way and noting the flickering of starlight caused by our very own Earth as it “transits” the sun. Wells sifted through astronomical catalogs and identified nine known exoplanets in one of the celestial sweet spots from which an Earth transit would be visible. Alas, it seems unlikely that any of these worlds could be home to alien skywatchers looking our way. Most are Jupiter-sized gas-ball worlds so hot that they’re unlikely to harbor life. But it turns out there’s more to the story. Al...
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Southern Lights near the Great Australian Bight

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An astronaut took this photograph of the Aurora Australis in August 2017. At the time, the International Space Station was moving over the southern Indian Ocean towards the Great Australian Bight and Melbourne, Australia. Click here to see a video of the flight over the aurora. Auroras are created in the upper atmosphere when the solar wind (a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun) interacts with the Earth’s protective magnetic field. Charged particles within the magnetosphere are accelerated down field lines toward the ionosphere, where they collide with different gases (particularly oxygen and nitrogen) and emit light as a reaction. Auroras often appear as neon green, purple, yellow, or red, depending on the gas molecules being excited. Green, for example, indicates collisions with oxygen. Astronaut photograph ISS052-E-63378 was acquired on August 19, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 22 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facil...
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