Mars Simulation Chamber News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Through roving and drilling, Mars Curiosity Rover may be breaking up the ground's salty, hardened soils that seal methane, possibly causing a temporal, local methane spike.

The Spiders from Mars isn't just the name of David Bowie's backing band in the 1970s—it's the nickname given to mysterious formations on Mars that resemble creepy black arachnids. These 'araneiforms' (Latin for 'spider-like') were first observed 20 years ago, but astronomers have finally determined they're caused by carbon dioxide vapor escaping from cracks in polar ice in the spring. Researchers were able to nail down this long suspected hypothesis by recreating conditions from the surface of Mars in a simulator. Lowering and lifting blocks of dry ice—essentially frozen CO2—onto beds o...