Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?

— Bob Monkhouse

Feed aggregator

We may need a fourth law of thermodynamics for living systems

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 2:11pm
The laws of thermodynamics don't accurately account for the complex processes in living cells – do we need a new one to accurately measure the ways living systems are out of equilibrium?
Categories: Astronomy

We may need a fourth law of thermodynamics for living systems

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 2:11pm
The laws of thermodynamics don't accurately account for the complex processes in living cells – do we need a new one to accurately measure the ways living systems are out of equilibrium?
Categories: Astronomy

Trump Orders Genesis Mission to Advance AI Breakthroughs

Scientific American.com - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 1:10pm

A new federal initiative aims to accelerate scientific discovery by uniting artificial intelligence with large federal datasets

Categories: Astronomy

Red Spider Nebula

NASA Image of the Day - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 1:10pm
Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed never-before-seen details in the picturesque Red Spider Nebula with a rich backdrop of thousands of stars.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Red Spider Nebula

NASA - Breaking News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 1:09pm
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured never-before-seen details of the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula, in this image released on Oct. 26, 2025. NIRCam is Webb’s primary near-infrared imager, providing high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy for a wide variety of investigations.

Webb’s new view of the Red Spider Nebula reveals for the first time the full extent of the nebula’s outstretched lobes, which form the ‘legs’ of the spider. These lobes, shown in blue, are traced by light emitted from H2 molecules, which contain two hydrogen atoms bonded together. Stretching over the entirety of NIRCam’s field of view, these lobes are shown to be closed, bubble-like structures that each extend about 3 light-years. Outflowing gas from the center of the nebula has inflated these massive bubbles over thousands of years.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Categories: NASA

Red Spider Nebula

NASA News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 1:09pm
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured never-before-seen details of the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula, in this image released on Oct. 26, 2025. NIRCam is Webb’s primary near-infrared imager, providing high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy for a wide variety of investigations.

Webb’s new view of the Red Spider Nebula reveals for the first time the full extent of the nebula’s outstretched lobes, which form the ‘legs’ of the spider. These lobes, shown in blue, are traced by light emitted from H2 molecules, which contain two hydrogen atoms bonded together. Stretching over the entirety of NIRCam’s field of view, these lobes are shown to be closed, bubble-like structures that each extend about 3 light-years. Outflowing gas from the center of the nebula has inflated these massive bubbles over thousands of years.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Categories: NASA

NASA Crater Detection Challenge

NASA - Breaking News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 12:30pm
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured images of the Moon’s surface on Oct 16, 2022, after flying by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists.

Crater rims are vital landmarks for planetary science and navigation. Yet detecting them in real imagery is tough, with shadows, lighting shifts, and broken edges obscuring their shape.

This project invites you to develop methods that can reliably fit ellipses to crater rims, helping advance future space exploration.

In the pursuit of next generation, terrain-based optical navigation, NASA is developing a system that will use a visible-light camera on a spacecraft to capture orbital images of lunar terrain and process the imagery to:

  • detect the crater rims in the images,
  • identify the craters from a catalog, and
  • estimate the camera/vehicle position based on the identified craters.

The focus of this project is the crater detection process.

Natural imagery varies significantly in lighting and will impact the completeness of crater rims in the images.

Award: $55,000 in total prizes

Open Date: November 25, 2025

Close Date: January 19, 2026

For more information, visit: https://www.topcoder.com/nasa-crater-detection

Categories: NASA

NASA Crater Detection Challenge

NASA News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 12:30pm
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured images of the Moon’s surface on Oct 16, 2022, after flying by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists.

Crater rims are vital landmarks for planetary science and navigation. Yet detecting them in real imagery is tough, with shadows, lighting shifts, and broken edges obscuring their shape.

This project invites you to develop methods that can reliably fit ellipses to crater rims, helping advance future space exploration.

In the pursuit of next generation, terrain-based optical navigation, NASA is developing a system that will use a visible-light camera on a spacecraft to capture orbital images of lunar terrain and process the imagery to:

  • detect the crater rims in the images,
  • identify the craters from a catalog, and
  • estimate the camera/vehicle position based on the identified craters.

The focus of this project is the crater detection process.

Natural imagery varies significantly in lighting and will impact the completeness of crater rims in the images.

Award: $55,000 in total prizes

Open Date: November 25, 2025

Close Date: January 19, 2026

For more information, visit: https://www.topcoder.com/nasa-crater-detection

Categories: NASA

CHAPEA Crew Begins Stay Inside NASA’s Mars Habitat for Second Mission

NASA - Breaking News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 12:29pm
CHAPEA mission 2 crew members (from left) Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer pose in front of the door to the simulated Martian landscape for their first photo inside the CHAPEA habitat after their mission began in October 2025. Credits: NASA/CHAPEA Crew

A crew of four research volunteers stepped inside NASA’s CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) habitat on Oct. 19, marking the start of the agency’s second 378-day simulated Mars mission.

Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer are living and working inside the roughly 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston until Oct. 31, 2026.

“The information and lessons learned through CHAPEA will inform real-life mission planning, vehicle and surface habitat designs, and other resources NASA needs to support crew health and performance as we venture beyond low-Earth orbit,” said Sara Whiting, Human Research Program project scientist. “Through these lessons, NASA’s Human Research Program is reducing human health and performance risks of spaceflight to enable safe and successful crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

The crew will face the challenges of a real Mars mission, and only leave to perform simulated “Marswalk” activities directly outside the habitat, wearing spacesuits, to traverse a simulated Mars environment filled with red sand. During these Marswalks, they will remain isolated within the building that houses CHAPEA at NASA Johnson.

“These crewmembers will help provide foundational data for mission planning and vehicle design and inform trades between resources, methods, and technologies that best support health and performance within the constraints of living on Mars,” said Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator. “The information gained from these simulated missions is critical to NASA’s goal of sending astronauts to explore Mars.”

During the year ahead, the crew will complete a variety of activities designed to replicate life and work on a long-duration mission on Mars, including high-tempo simulated Marswalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, physical exercise, and crop cultivation. The mission also aims to investigate how the crew adapts and responds to various environmental stressors that may arise during a real Martian mission, including limited access to resources, prolonged isolation, 22-minute communication delays, and equipment failures. Researchers will study how the team manages these conditions, which will inform future protocols and plans ahead of future crewed missions to Mars.

The first CHAPEA mission, which took place in the same habitat, concluded on July 6, 2024.

The CHAPEA mission 2 main crew and two alternate crew members are pictured in front of the Space Exploration Vehicle, the prototype pressurized rover that transported crew members to the habitat at the start of the mission. Credits: NASA/James Blair Ross Elder, CHAPEA mission 2 commander, waves to agency leaders and staff who are supporting the mission before he steps into the habitat. Credits: NASA/James Blair Suzanne Bell, CHAPEA Mission 2 Co-Principal Investigator, offers remarks to crew members Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer, Ross Elder, and Ellen Ellis directly before they enter the habitat for the 378-day mission. Credits: NASA/James Blair

____

NASA’s Human Research Program

NASA’s Human Research Program pursues methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, the International Space Station and Artemis missions, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives the program’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Explore More 5 min read NASA’s 2025 Astronaut Candidates: Shaping Artemis Exploration  Article 6 days ago 4 min read The Overview Effect: Astronaut Perspectives from 25 Years in Low Earth Orbit Article 1 week ago 8 min read 25 Years of Scientific Discovery Aboard the International Space Station Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Living in Space

Artemis

Human Research Program

Space Station Research and Technology

Categories: NASA

CHAPEA Crew Begins Stay Inside NASA’s Mars Habitat for Second Mission

NASA News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 12:29pm
CHAPEA mission 2 crew members (from left) Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer pose in front of the door to the simulated Martian landscape for their first photo inside the CHAPEA habitat after their mission began in October 2025. Credits: NASA/CHAPEA Crew

A crew of four research volunteers stepped inside NASA’s CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) habitat on Oct. 19, marking the start of the agency’s second 378-day simulated Mars mission.

Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer are living and working inside the roughly 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston until Oct. 31, 2026.

“The information and lessons learned through CHAPEA will inform real-life mission planning, vehicle and surface habitat designs, and other resources NASA needs to support crew health and performance as we venture beyond low-Earth orbit,” said Sara Whiting, Human Research Program project scientist. “Through these lessons, NASA’s Human Research Program is reducing human health and performance risks of spaceflight to enable safe and successful crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

The crew will face the challenges of a real Mars mission, and only leave to perform simulated “Marswalk” activities directly outside the habitat, wearing spacesuits, to traverse a simulated Mars environment filled with red sand. During these Marswalks, they will remain isolated within the building that houses CHAPEA at NASA Johnson.

“These crewmembers will help provide foundational data for mission planning and vehicle design and inform trades between resources, methods, and technologies that best support health and performance within the constraints of living on Mars,” said Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator. “The information gained from these simulated missions is critical to NASA’s goal of sending astronauts to explore Mars.”

During the year ahead, the crew will complete a variety of activities designed to replicate life and work on a long-duration mission on Mars, including high-tempo simulated Marswalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, physical exercise, and crop cultivation. The mission also aims to investigate how the crew adapts and responds to various environmental stressors that may arise during a real Martian mission, including limited access to resources, prolonged isolation, 22-minute communication delays, and equipment failures. Researchers will study how the team manages these conditions, which will inform future protocols and plans ahead of future crewed missions to Mars.

The first CHAPEA mission, which took place in the same habitat, concluded on July 6, 2024.

The CHAPEA mission 2 main crew and two alternate crew members are pictured in front of the Space Exploration Vehicle, the prototype pressurized rover that transported crew members to the habitat at the start of the mission. Credits: NASA/James Blair Ross Elder, CHAPEA mission 2 commander, waves to agency leaders and staff who are supporting the mission before he steps into the habitat. Credits: NASA/James Blair Suzanne Bell, CHAPEA Mission 2 Co-Principal Investigator, offers remarks to crew members Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer, Ross Elder, and Ellen Ellis directly before they enter the habitat for the 378-day mission. Credits: NASA/James Blair

____

NASA’s Human Research Program

NASA’s Human Research Program pursues methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, the International Space Station and Artemis missions, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives the program’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Explore More 5 min read NASA’s 2025 Astronaut Candidates: Shaping Artemis Exploration  Article 4 days ago 4 min read The Overview Effect: Astronaut Perspectives from 25 Years in Low Earth Orbit Article 5 days ago 8 min read 25 Years of Scientific Discovery Aboard the International Space Station Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Living in Space

Artemis

Human Research Program

Space Station Research and Technology

Categories: NASA

NASA Orbiter Shines New Light on Long-Running Martian Mystery

NASA - Breaking News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 12:02pm

5 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter captured this view of Mars’ south polar ice cap Feb. 25, 2015. Three years later, the spacecraft detected a signal from the area to the right of the ice cap that scientists interpreted as an underground lake.ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Results from an enhanced radar technique have demonstrated improvement to sub-surface observations of Mars. 

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revisited and raised new questions about a mysterious feature buried beneath thousands of feet of ice at the Red Planet’s south pole. In a recent study, researchers conclude from data obtained using an innovative radar technique that an area on Mars suspected of being an underground lake is more likely to be a layer of rock and dust.  

The 2018 discovery of the suspected lake set off a flurry of scientific activity, as water is closely linked with life in the solar system. While the latest findings indicate this feature is not a lake below the Martian surface, it does suggest that the same radar technique could be used to check for subsurface resources elsewhere on Mars, supporting future explorers. 

The paper, published in Geophysical Research Letters on Nov. 17, was led by two of MRO’s Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument scientists, Gareth Morgan and Than Putzig, who are based at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and Lakewood, Colorado, respectively. 

The observations were made by MRO with a special maneuver that rolls the spacecraft 120 degrees. Doing so enhances the power of SHARAD, enabling the radar’s signal to penetrate deeper underground and provide a clearer image of the subsurface. These “very large rolls” have proved so effective that scientists are eager to use them at previously observed sites where buried ice might exist

This map shows the approximate area where in 2018 ESA’s Mars Express detected a signal the mission’s scientists interpreted as an underground lake. The red lines show the path of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which flew both directly overhead as well as over an adjacent region. Credit: Planetary Science Institute

Morgan, Putzig, and fellow SHARAD team members had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to observe the area suspected of hosting a buried lake. Then the scientists partnered with the spacecraft’s operations team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the mission, to develop the very large roll capability. 

Because the radar’s antenna is at the back of MRO, the orbiter’s body obstructs its view and weakens the instrument’s sensitivity. After considerable work, engineers at JPL and Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, which built the spacecraft and supports its operations, developed commands for a 120-degree roll — a technique that requires careful planning to keep the spacecraft safe — to direct more of SHARAD’s signal at the surface.

Bright signal  

On May 26, SHARAD performed a very large roll to finally pick up the signal in the target area, which spans about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) and is buried under a slab of water ice almost 1 mile (1,500 meters) thick.  

When a radar signal bounces off underground layers, the strength of its reflection depends on what the subsurface is made of. Most materials let the signal slip through or absorb it, making the return faint. Liquid water is special in that it produces a very reflective surface, sending back a very strong signal (imagine pointing a flashlight at a mirror). 

That’s the kind of signal that was spotted from this area in 2018 by a team working with the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Express orbiter. To explain how such a body of water could remain liquid under all that ice, scientists have hypothesized it could be a briny lake, since high salt content can lower water’s freezing temperature. 

An antenna sticks out like whiskers from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in this artist’s concept depicting the spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006. This antenna is part of SHARAD, a radar that peers below the Martian surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We’ve been observing this area with SHARAD for almost 20 years without seeing anything from those depths,” said Putzig. But once MRO achieved a very large roll over the precise area, the team was able to look much deeper. And rather than the bright signal MARSIS received, SHARAD detected a faint one. A different very-large-roll observation of an adjacent area didn’t detect a signal at all, suggesting something unique is causing a quirky radar signal at the exact spot MARSIS saw a signal. 

“The lake hypothesis generated lots of creative work, which is exactly what exciting scientific discoveries are supposed to do,” said Morgan. “And while this new data won’t settle the debate, it makes it very hard to support the idea of a liquid water lake.”

Alternative explanations

Mars’ south pole has an ice cap sitting atop heavily cratered terrain, and most radar images of the area below the ice show lots of peaks and valleys. Morgan and Putzig said it’s possible that the bright signal MARSIS detected here may just be a rare smooth area — an ancient lava flow, for example. 

Both scientists are excited to use the very large roll technique to reexamine other scientifically interesting regions of Mars. One such place is Medusae Fossae, a sprawling geologic formation on Mars’ equator that produces little radar return. While some scientists have suggested it’s composed of layers of volcanic ash, others have suggested the layers may include heaps of ice deep within. 

“If it’s ice, that means there’s lots of water resources near the Martian equator, where you’d want to send humans,” said Putzig. “Because the equator is exposed to more sunlight, it’s warmer and ideal for astronauts to live and work.” 

More about MRO

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages MRO for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built MRO and supports its operations. SHARAD was provided to the MRO mission by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

News Media Contacts

Andrew Good 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-393-2433 
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov 

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser 
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

2025-130

Share Details Last Updated Nov 25, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Capture Images of Comet 3I/ATLAS Article 1 week ago 3 min read View Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Through NASA’s Multiple Lenses 

This article was updated to include the full range of dates from the SOHO image.…

Article 1 week ago
4 min read What Would It Take to Say We Found Life? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 63 Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Mars Exploration

Mars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots. Learn more about the Mars Missions.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the second longest-lived spacecraft to orbit Mars, after 2001 Mars Odyssey.

MRO Science

Overview Among other ongoing  achievements, data collected by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues to help Mars scientists and engineers characterize potential…

Mars Express

NASA Participation  In partnership with their European colleagues, U.S. scientists are participating in the scientific instrument teams of the Mars…

Categories: NASA

NASA Orbiter Shines New Light on Long-Running Martian Mystery

NASA News - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 12:02pm

5 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter captured this view of Mars’ south polar ice cap Feb. 25, 2015. Three years later, the spacecraft detected a signal from the area to the right of the ice cap that scientists interpreted as an underground lake.ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Results from an enhanced radar technique have demonstrated improvement to sub-surface observations of Mars. 

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revisited and raised new questions about a mysterious feature buried beneath thousands of feet of ice at the Red Planet’s south pole. In a recent study, researchers conclude from data obtained using an innovative radar technique that an area on Mars suspected of being an underground lake is more likely to be a layer of rock and dust.  

The 2018 discovery of the suspected lake set off a flurry of scientific activity, as water is closely linked with life in the solar system. While the latest findings indicate this feature is not a lake below the Martian surface, it does suggest that the same radar technique could be used to check for subsurface resources elsewhere on Mars, supporting future explorers. 

The paper, published in Geophysical Research Letters on Nov. 17, was led by two of MRO’s Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument scientists, Gareth Morgan and Than Putzig, who are based at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and Lakewood, Colorado, respectively. 

The observations were made by MRO with a special maneuver that rolls the spacecraft 120 degrees. Doing so enhances the power of SHARAD, enabling the radar’s signal to penetrate deeper underground and provide a clearer image of the subsurface. These “very large rolls” have proved so effective that scientists are eager to use them at previously observed sites where buried ice might exist

This map shows the approximate area where in 2018 ESA’s Mars Express detected a signal the mission’s scientists interpreted as an underground lake. The red lines show the path of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which flew both directly overhead as well as over an adjacent region. Credit: Planetary Science Institute

Morgan, Putzig, and fellow SHARAD team members had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to observe the area suspected of hosting a buried lake. Then the scientists partnered with the spacecraft’s operations team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the mission, to develop the very large roll capability. 

Because the radar’s antenna is at the back of MRO, the orbiter’s body obstructs its view and weakens the instrument’s sensitivity. After considerable work, engineers at JPL and Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, which built the spacecraft and supports its operations, developed commands for a 120-degree roll — a technique that requires careful planning to keep the spacecraft safe — to direct more of SHARAD’s signal at the surface.

Bright signal  

On May 26, SHARAD performed a very large roll to finally pick up the signal in the target area, which spans about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) and is buried under a slab of water ice almost 1 mile (1,500 meters) thick.  

When a radar signal bounces off underground layers, the strength of its reflection depends on what the subsurface is made of. Most materials let the signal slip through or absorb it, making the return faint. Liquid water is special in that it produces a very reflective surface, sending back a very strong signal (imagine pointing a flashlight at a mirror). 

That’s the kind of signal that was spotted from this area in 2018 by a team working with the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Express orbiter. To explain how such a body of water could remain liquid under all that ice, scientists have hypothesized it could be a briny lake, since high salt content can lower water’s freezing temperature. 

An antenna sticks out like whiskers from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in this artist’s concept depicting the spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006. This antenna is part of SHARAD, a radar that peers below the Martian surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We’ve been observing this area with SHARAD for almost 20 years without seeing anything from those depths,” said Putzig. But once MRO achieved a very large roll over the precise area, the team was able to look much deeper. And rather than the bright signal MARSIS received, SHARAD detected a faint one. A different very-large-roll observation of an adjacent area didn’t detect a signal at all, suggesting something unique is causing a quirky radar signal at the exact spot MARSIS saw a signal. 

“The lake hypothesis generated lots of creative work, which is exactly what exciting scientific discoveries are supposed to do,” said Morgan. “And while this new data won’t settle the debate, it makes it very hard to support the idea of a liquid water lake.”

Alternative explanations

Mars’ south pole has an ice cap sitting atop heavily cratered terrain, and most radar images of the area below the ice show lots of peaks and valleys. Morgan and Putzig said it’s possible that the bright signal MARSIS detected here may just be a rare smooth area — an ancient lava flow, for example. 

Both scientists are excited to use the very large roll technique to reexamine other scientifically interesting regions of Mars. One such place is Medusae Fossae, a sprawling geologic formation on Mars’ equator that produces little radar return. While some scientists have suggested it’s composed of layers of volcanic ash, others have suggested the layers may include heaps of ice deep within. 

“If it’s ice, that means there’s lots of water resources near the Martian equator, where you’d want to send humans,” said Putzig. “Because the equator is exposed to more sunlight, it’s warmer and ideal for astronauts to live and work.” 

More about MRO

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages MRO for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built MRO and supports its operations. SHARAD was provided to the MRO mission by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

News Media Contacts

Andrew Good 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-393-2433 
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov 

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser 
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

2025-130

Share Details Last Updated Nov 25, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Capture Images of Comet 3I/ATLAS Article 1 week ago 3 min read View Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Through NASA’s Multiple Lenses 

This article was updated to include the full range of dates from the SOHO image.…

Article 1 week ago
4 min read What Would It Take to Say We Found Life? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 63 Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Mars Exploration

Mars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots. Learn more about the Mars Missions.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the second longest-lived spacecraft to orbit Mars, after 2001 Mars Odyssey.

MRO Science

Overview Among other ongoing  achievements, data collected by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues to help Mars scientists and engineers characterize potential…

Mars Express

NASA Participation  In partnership with their European colleagues, U.S. scientists are participating in the scientific instrument teams of the Mars…

Categories: NASA

Scientists Identify Five Distinct Eras of Human Brain Aging

Scientific American.com - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 11:00am

Human brains go through five distinct phases of life, each defined by its own set of characteristics, according to a new study

Categories: Astronomy

The long-overlooked insects that could save our crops

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 11:00am
Hoverflies, often mistaken for bees and wasps, pollinate three quarters of our crops. Now we’re discovering we can train them to be even more efficient
Categories: Astronomy

The long-overlooked insects that could save our crops

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 11:00am
Hoverflies, often mistaken for bees and wasps, pollinate three quarters of our crops. Now we’re discovering we can train them to be even more efficient
Categories: Astronomy

Red Giant “Star Songs” Reveal Their Chaotic, Pasts

Sky & Telescope Magazine - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 10:30am

Astronomers have tuned in to the celestial “songs” of two red giant stars to reveal their hidden histories — including a case of stellar cannibalism.

The post Red Giant “Star Songs” Reveal Their Chaotic, Pasts appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Categories: Astronomy

Which Thanksgiving Pie Causes the Biggest Blood Sugar Spike: Pecan, Apple or Pumpkin?

Scientific American.com - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 8:00am

Scientific American asked experts which type of Thanksgiving pie spikes blood sugar the most—and how to eat healthier while still enjoying the holidays

Categories: Astronomy

Modeling the Fight Between Charged Lunar Dust and Spacecraft Coatings

Universe Today - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 7:27am

Understanding how exactly lunar dust sticks to surfaces is going to be important once we start having a long-term sustainable presence on the Moon. Dust on the Moon is notoriously sticky and damaging to equipment, as well as being hazardous to astronaut’s health. While there has been plenty of studies into lunar dust and its implications, we still lack a model that can effectively describe the precise physical mechanisms the dust uses to adhere to surfaces. A paper released last year from Yue Feng of the Beijing Institute of Technology and their colleagues showcases a model that could be used to understand how lunar dust sticks to spacecraft - and what we can do about it.

Categories: Astronomy

'Horrific and beautiful' whale rescue image wins photography prize

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 7:00am
See some of the winning entries for this year's Oceania Photo Contest, including Miesa Grobbelaar's shot of a whale, which took the top prize
Categories: Astronomy

'Horrific and beautiful' whale rescue image wins photography prize

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Tue, 11/25/2025 - 7:00am
See some of the winning entries for this year's Oceania Photo Contest, including Miesa Grobbelaar's shot of a whale, which took the top prize
Categories: Astronomy