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NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which reached Mars in October 2001, and its younger counterpart the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have both far outlasted their original mission timelines of just a few years. The two orbiters continue to gather data on Martian ice and surface changes while also relaying communications from every NASA rover on the surface back to Earth.
A team led by planetary scientist Jorge Hernández-Bernal of Sorbonne Université has produced the first successful computer model explaining the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), a wispy formation that stretches over 1,000 miles across Mars each spring and summer morning before vanishing. The cloud, first spotted by a probe in 2018, had defied explanation until the simulation incorporated a physical mechanism long treated as theoretical and never previously observed occurring in any planet's atmosphere.
Researchers led by Jorge Hernández-Bernal of Sorbonne Université have produced the first successful computer model of the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, a recurring Martian formation that stretches over 1,000 miles each spring and summer before vanishing. Published in Nature Geoscience, the study suggests the cloud forms through homogeneous nucleation, a process where water vapor turns directly into ice crystals without dust or other particles to help it along.
Japan's space agency JAXA launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft Monday aboard an H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center, kicking off a five-year mission to land on Phobos, the largest Martian moon, and bring samples back to Earth. The $578 million spacecraft separated successfully about 71 minutes after liftoff, deployed its solar panels, and reported stable contact with ground controllers, JAXA officials said.
Japan's space agency JAXA is launching the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft from Tanegashima Space Center, aiming to reach Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos after about a year of travel. The mission will study both moons remotely and collect physical samples from Phobos to return to Earth, following three earlier Russian attempts that all failed.
NASA says its Perseverance rover has now traveled 28.10 miles (45.22 km) on Mars, surpassing Opportunity's previous record of 28.06 miles (45.16 km). Perseverance reached the mark in about five and a half years, far faster than Opportunity's nearly 15-year run, and is now heading toward a site called Idubi to study ancient terrain.
Space agency officials and researchers, including ESA director general Josef Aschbacher and Bangor University's Simon Middleburgh, describe plans and challenges for establishing a sustainable lunar base. They point to the moon's value for studying the solar system's origins, hosting telescopes free of atmospheric interference, and serving as a low-gravity launch point for deeper space missions. Significant engineering problems remain, including protection from radiation, dust, asteroids and extreme temperatures, plus the need for self-sustaining resources and autonomous robotic construction.
At a Royal Canin research facility in France, roughly 160 cats and dogs sample pet food formulas while nutritionists track their preferences, behavior and stool quality to refine recipes. The work comes as U.S. cat food spending topped $17 billion over the past year, up 14% from two years prior, according to The New York Times.
Researchers studying a recurring, elongated cloud near Mars's Arsia Mons volcano say it forms through a physical process never before documented in a planetary atmosphere. The cloud behaves differently from typical water-ice clouds seen elsewhere on the planet, prompting closer scrutiny of how it develops and dissipates.
NASA has scrapped the Lunar Gateway station and the Mars Sample Return mission as it redirects resources toward a Moon Base near the lunar south pole, intensifying competition with China. Administrator Jared Isaacman says international partners, including the European Space Agency, must now offer "meaningful contributions" that fill gaps NASA or US companies aren't already addressing, and he has rejected an ESA proposal for a European cargo lander.
Scientists had previously estimated that Mars's north polar ice cap contained roughly 25% dust mixed in with water ice. New research revises that figure sharply downward, indicating the ice is much purer than earlier models suggested.
Scientists studying Mars's chaotic terrain—regions of jumbled, collapsed mesas and deep depressions—say crater counts and geological analysis date these formations to between 2.0 and 3.8 billion years ago. The terrain is concentrated near ancient giant river valleys, and researchers have found water-related minerals such as hematite and phyllosilicates in these regions.