NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has detected two unexpected phenomena in the short time since
making orbit around the red planet — an aurora occurring deep in the Martian atmosphere, and an as of yet unexplained high altitude dust cloud.
Not exact matches
Unlike Saturn's bright rings, which are
made almost entirely of ice particles, Mars's rocky ring will be dark and largely invisible from Earth, although the cloud of
orbiting Phobos bits will at first be dense enough to cast a shadow on the
Red Planet's surface during some parts of the planet's orbit around the sun, the researcher
Planet's surface during some parts of the
planet's orbit around the sun, the researcher
planet's
orbit around the sun, the researchers say.
The research also suggests that habitable - zone super-Earth
planets (where liquid water could exist and
making them possible candidates to support life)
orbit around at least a quarter of the
red dwarfs in the Sun's own neighbourhood.
Discouragingly, a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal suggests that
planets in
orbit around red dwarfs may be subject to tremendously powerful and frequent solar flares,
making it difficult — if not impossible — for life to emerge in such systems.