NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has captured the sharpest-ever images of a solar eclipse as seen from the Red Planet.
The 1-ton Curiosity rover snapped pictures with its telephoto lens as Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two tiny moons, blotted out much of the solar disk on Aug. 17.
“This event occurred near noon at Curiosity’s location, which put Phobos at its closest point to the rover, appearing larger against the sun than it would at other times of day,” Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, a co-investigator for Curiosity’s Mastcam instrument, said in a statement. “This is the closest to a total eclipse of the sun that you can have from Mars.”
August 30th, 2013
Curiosity snaps sharpest-ever solar eclipse photos from Mars NBC News
August 20th, 2013
Curiosity captures footage of a Martian moon eclipse cnet
As Curiosity continues to trek across the wild red yonder of Mars, it stopped for a moment earlier this month to observe the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, passing by each other in the night sky. This imagery of one Martian moon eclipsing another as seen from the surface of Mars is the first of its kind, and serves a useful purpose for astronomers.
“The ultimate goal is to improve orbit knowledge enough that we can improve the measurement of the tides Phobos raises on the Martian solid surface, giving knowledge of the Martian interior,” said Mark Lemmon, a Texas A&M University co-investigator working with Curiosity’s Mastcam. “We may also get data good enough to detect density variations within Phobos and to determine if Deimos’ orbit is systematically changing.”
August 6th, 2013
NASA’s Curiosity First Anniversary on Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover marks one year on Mars and has already achieved its main science goal of revealing ancient Mars could have supported life. The mobile laboratory also is guiding designs for future planetary missions.
“Successes of our Curiosity — that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the science findings since then — advance us toward further exploration, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Wheel tracks now, will lead to boot prints later.”
August 5th, 2013
Curiosity’s Hard-Working Year on Mars Pays Off With Amazing Scientific Discoveries Wired
NASA’s Curiosity rover is a gigantic mobile laboratory. During the last year, it has roved over the Martian surface exploring a small section of Gale crater while making huge scientific discoveries.
The rover was built as a data-generating machine. You put rocks, air, and samples in and you get science out. Specifically, Curiosity is searching for signs of ancient habitability and seeking to answer an important question: Could Mars have ever had living organisms crawling over its surface?
Curiosity’s science team includes geologists, chemists, physicists, astrobiologists, and countless other researchers. Using the probe’s state-of-the-art equipment, they have drilled into Martian rocks, fired lasers and X-rays, baked powdered soil for analysis, and sniffed the atmosphere. Many of these activities had never been done on the Red Planet, or any planet beyond Earth, before. The data received from Curiosity has bolstered the idea that the planet once had water flowing over its surface and was a place where life could have conceivably thrived. It will take many more months and years of exploring to completely tease out all the details but the rover has already exceeded the expectations of its original designers.
August 1st, 2013
Happy New Mars Year! The Planetary Society
They’re too far apart to have a party, but today Curiosity and Opportunity could have rung in the New Mars Year. Today Mars reached a solar longitude of zero degrees and the Sun crossed Mars’ equator, heralding the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere. This is the date that Martian climatologists have identified as the zero-point for Mars’ calendar. Mars Year 31 was a good one, with Opportunity active at the rim of Endeavour crater and Curiosity arriving at Gale. Mars Year 32 should be even better, as Opportunity rolls up Solander point and maybe even Cape Tribulation, and Curiosity should explore the rocks in the mountain that drew her to Gale in the first place. And there’ll be two orbiters arriving (we hope). MAVEN and the Mars Orbiter Mission’s capabilities should warm the hearts of the climatologists who care about how one Mars year differs from the next enough to need to make up a calendar to mark their passage!
July 26th, 2013
Think our weather’s zany? Try Mars and its daily 123° swings KOMO News
If the warm days of summer have you pining for some cooler weather, perhaps a trip to Mars is in order.
Sure, you’d need to build a spaceship, ask your boss for about 2 years off from work, and solve that whole “Mars has no oxygen, water, or Starbucks (yet)” issue but if you could get there, it would definitely be colder than a Seattle summer.
Tony Rice, a fellow weather blogger and volunteer with the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program, maintains the @MarsWxReport Twitter feed, which gives the current weather once a Martian day (40 minutes longer than an Earth day) from the Mars rover Curiosity.
What we find is that Mars is a cold place that has some radical changes in temperature between day and night, when it gets really, really cold.
April 26th, 2013
NASA proves 3D printing is headed to the stars VentureBeat
3D-printed space technology is no longer science fiction, as NASA and other space companies are making it a reality.
Engineers and researchers at the Ames Research Center are already working with 3D printing technology to make it applicable for use in both space travel and the study of our universe, according to a recent CNET report.
Earlier this year, MakerBot, one of the foremost producers of 3D printers, confirmed that NASA engineers were using the technology to build parts for models, including the Mars Rover Curiosity. NASA is now the company’s biggest customer, the company told Forbes.
April 4th, 2013
Mars missions scaled back in April because of sun
It’s the Martian version of spring break: Curiosity and Opportunity, along with their spacecraft friends circling overhead, will take it easy this month because of the sun’s interference.
For much of April, the sun blocks the line of sight between Earth and Mars. This celestial alignment — called a Mars solar conjunction — makes it difficult for engineers to send instructions or hear from the flotilla in orbit and on the surface.
Such communication blackouts occur every two years when the red planet disappears behind the sun. No new commands are sent since flares and charged particles spewing from the sun can scramble transmission signals and put spacecraft in danger.
April 3rd, 2013
Used Parachute on Mars Flaps in the Wind
Photos from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show how the parachute that helped NASA’s Curiosity rover land on Mars last summer has subsequently changed its shape on the ground.
The images were obtained by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Seven images taken by HiRISE between Aug. 12, 2012, and Jan. 13, 2013, show the used parachute shifting its shape at least twice in response to wind.
March 29th, 2013
4-Gigapixel Mars Panorama Created Using 407 Photos Taken by Curiosity PetaPixel
For a while now we’ve been sharing photos beamed home by NASA’s rovers on Mars. From panoramas by the old timer Opportunity to selfies by the new kid Curiosity, we’re starting to see more and more of the Red Planet many millions of miles away. Andrew Bodrov, however, has taken it to the next level.
By putting together 407 photos taken by both the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) and Medium Angle Camera (MAC) on Curiosity, Bodrov has created the amazing 4-gigapixel 360-degree panorama you see below. A panorama so vast it’ll make you feel like you’re using street view on Mars.