Science
Mars isn t dead.
NASA announced on Thursday that its InSight lander, which probes for geological activity on Mars, recently recorded two strong, clear quakes in the same region where the lander previously observed two sizeable quakes in 2019. This points to a seismically active area on Mars a place that looks bone-dry and devoid of life on its surface, but might be active below ground. The magnitude 3.3 and 3.1 temblors originated in a region called Cerberus Fossae, further supporting the idea that this location is seismically active, wrote NASA. The new quakes happened on March 7 and March 18.
(These are considered relatively light quakes on Earth, but they re definitely rumbles people can feel, depending on how close they are and how deep the quake strikes.)
NASA recorded two 'sizeable quakes' on Mars mashable.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mashable.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ice frozen under Mars’ surface offers major resource to aid future settlements
Frozen water is hiding beneath the dust-covered surface of Mars, and scientist Ali Bramson wants to find it. She sees a chance to both sustain future human explorers and answer questions about the red planet’s climate.
Bramson, a Purdue University assistant professor of planetary science, was part of recent research to determine the location and depth of the subsurface ice. The results of the NASA Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) project were published in Nature Astronomy.
Her work in SWIM focused on radar subsurface discovery and mapping of ice deposits in Mars’ northern hemisphere. Another SWIM project Bramson participated in, completed in December, examined the southern hemisphere.