Research news
Find here the latest scientific news from the Institute's groups.
Most terrestrial sand seas form at ‘horse’ latitudes, where the wind direction exhibits seasonal variation. Here, we extend the two-dimensional linear stability analysis of a flat sand bed associated with a unidirectional wind to the three-dimensional case in order to account for multidirectional wind regimes.
By protecting the seismometer from temperature variations and winds, the shield is essential to achieve a noise level compatible with recording the smallest vibrations of the Martian surface. Under its protective dome, the SEIS seismometer will be able to be used to the maximum of its potential.
Origin of volatiles, such as carbon, nitrogen, water and noble gases, on Earth and other terrestrial planets is still misunderstood. However, it is a crucial issue for better understanding processes of solar system formation.
Despite the incredible complexity of the Mars probes deposited on the planet’s surface, finding the position of the geographic North Pole on the Red Planet is no easy task. To be able to use the SEIS seismometer with the required accuracy, seismologists need to know its orientation on the ground, after it was left by InSight's robotic arm on 19 December. But on Mars, it is impossible to use a conventional compass.
NASA has just successfully placed the SEIS seismometer from the InSight probe on Mars. This is the first time in the history of space exploration that an instrument has been deployed by a robotic arm on the surface of another planet. The success of this critical step for the rest of the mission is the result of years of unceasing technical efforts by the scientific teams.
Hundreds of international researchers who are members of the Deep Carbon Observatory, including Bénédicte Ménez and Emmanuelle Gérard of IPGP, published on December 10 on the occasion of AGU 2018 the sum of their work, estimating that deep life would represent a mass of 15 to 23 billion tons of carbon, several hundred times more than that of the 7 billion human beings.
Engineers have set up a complete test bench to reconstruct the Martian environment on Earth on the Elysium plain. A life-size replica of InSight, called ForeSight, equipped with the entire deployment system dominates an area in which mineral material simulating Martian regolith has been dumped.