Space probes

The Mars Rover Curiosity

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The Mars Rover Curiosity will reach Mars in six months but is already working. In fact, its job isn’t only to go to Mars to study it more thoroughly than the previous spacecrafts but also to give us an idea of ​​what dangers astronauts will face in the future if at last there will be a space mission to take humans to Mars or anyway in deep space.

Global map of Earth's forests (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA led a project that allowed the creation of a high-resolution map of the Earth’s forests and their height using data from the ICESat satellite combined with data from other space missions and the WorldClim database.

Artistic concept of ESA Venus Express space probe orbiting Venus (Image ESA)

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Using the VIRTIS at infrared waves, the space probe Venus Express can study the surface of Venus despite the thick layer of clouds that cover it finding a change in the planet’s rotation speed.

Artistic concept of an ancient ocean on Mars (Image ESA, C. Carreau)

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Data received from the Mars Express space probe contain what are regarded as evidence that there was an ocean on Mars. The instrument used was the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding), a radar developed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency.