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Planetary scientists from Rice University, NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the California Institute of Technology have answers to a mystery that has baffled the Mars research community since NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered a mineral called tridymite in Gale Crater in 2016. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took this low-angle self-portrait at the location where it drilled rock on July 30, 2015, producing a powder (seen in the foreground) that was later confirmed to contain the rare mineral tridymite. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) Tridymite is a very rare form of high-temperature, low-pressure quartz on Earth, and it’s not immediately clear how the concentrated chunks ended up in craters. Gale Crater was chosen as Curiosity’s landing site because of the possibility that it once harbored liquid water, and Curiosity found evidence confirming Gale Crater was a lake as recently as 1 billion years ago. “The discovery of tridymite in mudstone at Ga...

The large field of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor in the dark depths of the East Pacific ocean is the hottest and largest ever found in the region. Not only that, but in places where scientists don’t expect to find active vents, let alone the entire system, hundreds of meters from the axis of the volcanic ridge. The discovery, scientists say, could have a significant impact on our understanding of ventilation systems, and the role they play in marine ecosystems. The field was discovered by a team of scientists using autonomous underwater vehicles to map the ocean floor at depths inhospitable to human explorers. In the data obtained from the AUV. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Security the team looked at the region of the massive tower, standing three stories high at 2,560 (8,400 feet) meters below the surface – in permanently dark and silent bathypelagic depths. Ventilation is monitored with a temperature recorder. (WHOI/NDSF/ROV Jason/NSF) Initially, the team thought ...