Desert Worlds Archives

Sahara Dust Storm Over The Canary islands As seen by Sentinel-3 Modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026), processed by ESA LICENCE CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Desert Worlds, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Desert/Water Planet Interaction: Sahara Dust Storm Over The Canary islands

by Keith CowingApril 2, 2026April 2, 2026

Earlier this week strong winds over the Saharan Desert blew westwards pushing clouds of dust and sand over southern and central Morocco and out into the Atlantic Ocean. This is […]

Image of Coffee_Cove (Sol 1466) with the locations and fields of view for the luminescence analyses (a). Comparison of the luminescence spectra taken on Hampden_River and Coffee_Cove compared to lab spectra collected on a pure ruby, ruby in an amphibolite rock, and diaspore -- LPSC

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Mars, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors

SuperCam Identifies Corundum In Jezero Crater, Mars, Using Time-Resolved Luminescence Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingApril 2, 2026April 2, 2026

The Perseverance rover recently began exploring the Jezero crater rim after traversing the crater floor, fan deposits, and margin unit. In the rim deposits, several plagioclase-rich light-toned float rocks (LTF) […]

Montage of three images taken by Mars Perseverance on Sol 1697 Nov. 28, 2025 by the WATSON Camera - NASA

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Conferences and Meetings, Desert Worlds, Education and Outreach, Mars, People Of Astrobiology, Status Report

Summer School: “Biosignatures and the Search For Life on Mars”

by Keith CowingMarch 26, 2026March 26, 2026

“Biosignatures and the Search For Life on Mars”, will be held in Iceland from 18 to 26 July 2026

Pink arrows point to spherical, radiating aggregates of gypsum crystals observed in the lower part of stromatolitic sample from Salar de Pajonales in northern Chile. These structures illustrate gypsum mineralization associated with microbial biosignatures. Credit Tebes-Cayo et al., 2026. -- Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Sample Return, Status Report

Gypsum Sustains Microbial Life Under Extreme Conditions – This Could Help Us Study Mars

by Keith CowingMarch 23, 2026March 23, 2026

Terraces near Flamencos Lagoon in the southeastern Salar de Pajonales (Chile), located at 3,517 m above sea level in the arid Altiplano, host relic gypsum stromatolites and crusts formed under […]

ID: ESP_054090_1985 date: 9 February 2018 altitude: 280 km larger image

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs

Exploring Northeast Syrtis via Jezero Crater

by Keith CowingMarch 21, 2026March 21, 2026

One of the final three candidate landing sites for the Mars 2020 mission was northeast Syrtis, along with Gusev Crater/Columbia Hills and the eventual landing site for the Perseverance rover, […]

Experimental set-up of the MMS-2 incubation. (a) One side of a two compartment Petri dish was filled with 1 g of heat-treated MMS-2; the other side contained 10 mL of Milli-Q water or a saturated salt solution. (b) Plates were sealed with Parafilm and placed in a sterile bag before incubation at 30 °C in a forced convection oven at ambient pressure. For each condition and sampling day, three replicate plates were opened once and then discarded after DNA extraction. -- Scientific Reports via PubMed

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report

Growth Of Microorganisms In A Martian Regolith Simulant At Reduced Water Activity

by Keith CowingMarch 10, 2026March 10, 2026

Water activity (aw) quantifies the free water available for microbial growth. At the cellular level, liquid water is paramount for replication and proliferation. Research on Earth-like life suggests that microbial […]

ID: ESP_076768_2115 date: 12 December 2022 altitude: 287 km larger image, NASA

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Desert Worlds, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Status Report

Streak Formation On Mars

by Keith CowingMarch 10, 2026

This image shows many slope streaks of various orientations at fairly high latitude (for slope streaks).

Aerosol deposition on the surface following 5 Mars years of 2.5 l/s release and 15 Mars years of shutoff. The distribution is comparatively uniform, with more deposition at low elevations, high latitudes and close to the release site (marked by the black cross). Including radiative cloud feedbacks makes little difference to the deposition. -- astro-ph.EP

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering

Modelling The Long-term Impacts Of Artificial Warming On The Martian Water Cycle And Surface Ice Distribution

by Keith CowingMarch 4, 2026March 4, 2026

Recent papers by Ansari et al. (2024, Science Advances 10, eadn4650) and Richardson et al. (2025, arXiv eprint 2504.01455) have suggested that global warming of the Martian surface (‘terraforming’) by […]

ID: ESP_072042_1330, date: 8 December 2021,altitude: 251 km larger image NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Astrogeology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Status Report

Defrosting Dunes in Kaiser Crater On Mars

by Keith CowingMarch 2, 2026March 2, 2026

The dark sand dune at the center of this observation is covered in a blanket of white seasonal ice in the winter. In this Martian springtime image, the western slope […]

Images of tardigrades with mineral coatings. Each image is annotated with the sample, simulant and time of exposure in days. Before treatment: Panels A–C show example active animals from inoculums with smooth exteriors. After treatment: Panels D–G show examples of active animals with mineral particles visible as a rough, bumpy exterior (arrows point to examples). Panels H–M show inactive (presumed dead) animals with mineral particles attached. Panels H, K and M show examples of bloated animals. Scale bar is 100 microns and the same size in each image. Images without scale bars are from videos and are shown at approximately the same scale. -- International Journal of Astrobiology

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Life Support Systems, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Space Agriculture, Space Life Science, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering

Short-term Survival Of Tardigrades In Martian Regolith Simulants

by Keith CowingFebruary 28, 2026February 28, 2026

With future intended human missions to Mars, it is crucial to understand the potential habitability of martian regolith both to support plant growth and to mitigate accidental release of organisms […]