Mysterious Mars

Mars from the Hubble telescope
Mars from the Hubble telescope

Today, 27 August, at 9.51 am GMT, Mars will be a mere 56 million kilometres from Earth, the closest it has been since 57,617 BC. The claim that Neanderthals 60 millennia ago witnessed a Mars approach similar to what we are seeing today should be re-evaluated on two counts, one astronomical and one historical. First:…


Spiral Galaxies & Grand Canyons

Mars +spiral galaxy
Mars +spiral galaxy

The grandest canyon in the solar system is Valles Marineris on Mars. It stretches a third of the way around the planet. But what in heaven can spiral galaxies have to do with the geology of Mars? In October 2001, I wrote “In light of more than a century’s research in the field of plasma…


Puzzling Star Stuff

“Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.” In a report for the New Scientist of 26 July, titled ‘The Sun Catcher,’ Hazel Muir writes about the daring exploits required to retrieve samples of the Sun to be returned to the Earth in 2004 by the GENESIS spacecraft. Astronomers hope that the solar…