The New York Times reports, “It is shocking but not surprising. Lightning crackles on Mars, scientists reported on Wednesday. What they observed, however, were not jagged, high-voltage bolts like those on Earth, arcing thousands of feet from cloud to ground.”
Full Story (New York Times)
Tag: Discovers
NASA’s Perseverance Rover May Have Discovered its First Meteorite on Mars
SPACE reports, “NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has found a possible meteorite on the surface of the Red Planet. Perseverance spotted an unusual “sculpted, high-standing” rock nestled among “low-lying, flat and fragmented surrounding rocks”, which got the attention of scientists right away.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Juno Spacecraft Discovers Auroral ‘Footprints’ of Jupiter’s Moon Callisto
SPACE reports, “In a landmark observation by a team of international researchers, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has, for the first time, clearly detected the auroras of Jupiter’s moon Callisto. This discovery completes the set of auroral signatures we have from all four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.”
Full Story (SPACE)
James Webb Space Telescope Detects Alien Planetary System’s Icy Edge
SPACE reports, “At long last, particles of water–ice have been discovered in the frozen Kuiper Belt of another star. The discovery, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, is a major step forward in filling in gaps in our understanding of how exoplanets develop.”
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James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Water Vapor in Distant Planet’s Atmosphere
SPACE reports, “NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has found water vapor swirling in the air of a distant, boiling-hot alien planet, a new study reports. That exotic world is TOI-421 b, a boiling-hot “sub-Neptune” orbiting a star about 244 light-years from Earth whose atmosphere JWST recently probed in detail.”
Full Story (SPACE)
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Discovers Large Organic Molecules
Aviation Week reports, “Samples of pulverized rock from the Martian surface gathered and analyzed by NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest collection of organic samples to date on the red planet. Findings published March 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifies the organics as molecular compounds of decane, undecane and dodecane, which are respectively comprised of 10, 11 and 12 carbon.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
NASA’s MESSENGER Discovers Mercury Has Layer of Diamond 10 Miles Thick
SPACE reports, Using data from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, scientists have determined that the solar system’s tiniest planet, Mercury, hides a not-so-tiny secret: “a 10-mile-thick diamond mantle may lie beneath the crust of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Perseverance Rover Finds Mysterious Boulder “Never Observed Before” on Mars
CBS News reports, “While exploring a crater on Mars that may give scientists insights into life that potentially once existed there, NASA said its Perseverance rover made an unprecedented discovery. The rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2021 specifically to probe the ancient Jezero crater, found a mysterious light-toned boulder earlier this month that was the first of its kind seen on Martian land.”
Full Story (CBS News)