Mars’ ‘Happy Face’ crater has grown in decade due to thermal erosion

Mars has something to smile about! The infamous ‘Happy Face’ crater near the Red Planet’s south pole has gotten noticeably bigger over the last decade. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter first recorded the grinning visage in 2011, using its powerful High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Researchers compared an image of the crater from October 2011 to … Read more

Say cheese! Mars’ ‘Happy Face’ crater has significantly grown over a decade due to thermal erosion

Mars has something to smile about! The infamous ‘Happy Face’ crater near the Red Planet’s south pole has gotten noticeably bigger over the last decade. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter first recorded the grinning visage in 2011, using its powerful High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Researchers compared an image of the crater from October 2011 to … Read more

Mass extinction 360m years ago caused by ozone layer erosion

A mass extinction 360 million years ago that killed off many of the Earth’s plants and freshwater animals was caused by a breakdown of the ozone layer. Scientists from the University of Southampton found evidence that it was high levels of ultraviolet radiation that destroyed the ancient forest ecosystem.   This newly discovered extinction mechanism was … Read more