Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
Mars: Perseverance (Mars 2020) Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Reaching New Heights to Unravel Deep Martian History!
This is an image of the rim that the Perseverance rover took on sol 383 (March 19th, 2022) when it was traversing the crater floor. Dox Castle is located at the top of the image in the far ground. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU The Perseverance rover is reaching new heights as it ascends the rim of Jezero crater (over 300 meters in elevation higher than the original landing site)! The rover is now enroute to its first campaign science stop Dox Castle (image in the far ground) a region of interest for its potential to host ancient Mars’ bedrock in the exposed rocks on the rim.
Impact craters like Jezero may be the key to piecing together the early geologic history of Mars, as they provide a window into the history of the ancient crust by excavating and depositing deep crustal materials above the surface. Crater rims act as keepers of ancient Martian history, uplifting and exposing the stratigraphy of these impacted materials. Additionally, extreme heat from the impact can encourage the circulation of fluids through fractures similar to hydrothermal vents, which have implications for early habitability and may be preserved in the exposed rim bedrock. With the Perseverance rover we have the potential to explore some of the oldest exposed rocks on the planet.
Exploring such diverse terrains takes a lot of initial planning! The team has been preparing for the Crater Rim Campaign these last few months by working together to map out the types of materials Perseverance may encounter during its traverse up and through the rim. Using orbital images from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument, the science team divided the rim area into 36 map quadrants, carefully mapping different rock units based on the morphologies, tones, and textures they observed in the orbital images. Mapping specialists then connected units across the quads to turn 36 miniature maps into one big geologic map of the crater rim. This resource is being used by the team to plan strategic routes to scientific areas of interest on the rim.
On Earth, geologic maps are made using a combination of orbital images and mapping in the field. Planetary scientists don’t typically get to check their map in the field, but we have the unique opportunity to validate our map using our very own robot geologist! Dox Castle will be our first chance to do rim science – and we’re excited to search for evidence of the transition between the margin and rim materials to start piecing together the stratigraphic history of the rocks that make up the rim of Jezero crater.
Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. student at Purdue University
Share
Details
Last Updated Sep 16, 2024 Related Terms
Blogs Explore More
5 min read Sols 4304-4006: 12 Years, 42 Drill Holes, and Now… 1 Million ChemCam Shots!
Article
3 days ago
3 min read Sols 4302-4303: West Side of Upper Gediz Vallis, From Tungsten Hills to the Next Rocky Waypoint
Article
3 days ago
2 min read Margin’ up the Crater Rim!
Article
6 days ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
View the full article
-
By European Space Agency
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite captured this image over Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 2 September, just ahead of the Sentinel-2C launch. View the full article
-
By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Sols 4295-4296: A Martian Moon and Planet Earth
Using an onboard focusing process, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, which is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. Curiosity performed the merge on Sept. 4, 2024, at 06:30:48 UTC — sol 4294, or Martian day 4,294 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The onboard focus merge is sometimes performed on images acquired the same sol as the merge, and sometimes using pictures obtained earlier. Focus merging is a method to make a composite of images of the same target acquired at different focus positions to bring as many features as possible into focus in a single image. The MAHLI focus merge also serves as a means to reduce the number of images sent back to Earth. Each focus merge produces two images: a color, best-focus product and a black-and-white image that scientists can use to estimate focus position for each element of the best-focus product. So up to eight images can be merged, but the number of images returned to Earth is two. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024
Today’s two-sol plan contains the usual science blocks filled with contact science and remote science to observe and assess the geology surrounding us. However, the Mastcam team is hoping to capture a special celestial event above the Martian skyline as one of Mars’ moons, Phobos, will be in conjunction with Earth on the evening of the first sol of this plan. So everyone look up, and smile for the camera!
Coming back to our beautiful workspace, in this plan there is a focus on targeting the different colors and tones we can see in the bedrock with our suite of instruments. In the image above we can see some of these varying tones — including gray areas, lighter-toned areas, and areas of tan-colored bedrock — with an image from the MAHLI instrument, Curiosity’s onboard hand lens.
APXS is targeting “Campfire Lake,” a lighter-toned area, and “Gemini,” a more gray-toned area situated in front of the rover. MAHLI is taking a suite of close-up images of these targets too. ChemCam is then taking two LIBS measurements of “Crazy Lake” and “Foolish Lake,” both of which appear to have lighter tones. Mastcam is documenting this whole area with a workspace mosaic and an 8×2 mosaic of “Picture Puzzle,” named after the rock in the image above that was taken during the previous plan. Mastcam will also be capturing a 6×3 mosaic of an outcrop named “Outguard Spire” that has an interesting gray rim. Looking further afield, ChemCam has planned a long-distance RMI image of the yardang unit and Navcam is taking a suprahorizon movie and dust-devil survey for our continued observations of the atmosphere to round out this plan.
Written by Emma Harris, Graduate Student at Natural History Museum, London
Share
Details
Last Updated Sep 05, 2024 Related Terms
Blogs Explore More
2 min read Sol 4294: Return to McDonald Pass
Article
15 hours ago
3 min read Sols 4291-4293: Fairview Dome, the Sequel
Article
16 hours ago
3 min read Behind the Scenes at the 2024 Mars 2020 Science Team Meeting
The Mars 2020 Science Team meets in Pasadena for 3 days of science synthesis
Article
6 days ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
View the full article
-
By NASA
Mars: Perseverance (Mars 2020) Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Perseverance Kicks off the Crater Rim Campaign!
Mastcam-Z mosaic made of 59 individual Mastcam-Z images showing the area Perseverance will climb in the coming weeks on its way to Dox Castle, the rover’s first stop on the crater rim. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS Perseverance is officially headed into a new phase of scientific investigation on the Jezero Crater rim!
For the last 2 months, the Perseverance rover has been exploring the Neretva Vallis region of Jezero Crater, where rocks with interesting popcorn-like textures and “leopard spot” patterns have fascinated us all. Now, the rover has begun its long ascent up the crater rim, and is officially kicking off a new phase of exploration for the mission.
Strategic (longer-term) planning is particularly important for the Mars 2020 mission given the crucial role Perseverance plays in collecting samples for Mars Sample Return, and the Mars 2020 team undertakes this planning in the form of campaigns. Perseverance has now completed four such campaigns— the Crater Floor, Delta Front, Upper Fan and Margin Unit campaigns respectively— making the Crater Rim Campaign next in line. Given its broad scope and the wide diversity of rocks we expect to encounter and sample along the way, it may be the most ambitious campaign the team has attempted so far.
The team also has less information from orbiter data to go on compared to previous campaigns, because this area of the crater rim does not have the high-resolution, hyperspectral imaging of CRISM that helped inform much of our geological unit distinctions inside the crater. This means that Mastcam-Z multispectral and SuperCam long-distance imaging will be particularly useful for understanding broadscale mineralogical distinctions between rocks as we traverse the crater rim. Such imaging has already proved extremely useful in the Neretva Vallis area, where at Alsap Butte we observed rocks that appeared similar to each other in initial imaging, but actually display an Andy-Warhol-esque array of color in multispectral products, indicative of varied mineral signatures.
Our next stop is Dox Castle where Perseverance will investigate the contact between the Margin Unit and the Crater rim, as well as rubbly material that may be our first encounter with deposits generated during the impact that created Jezero crater itself. Later in the campaign, we will investigate other light-toned outcrops that may or may not be similar to those encountered at Bright Angel, as well as rocks thought to be part of the regionally extensive olivine-carbonate-bearing unit, and whose relationship to both Séítah and the Margin Unit remains an interesting story to unravel. Throughout this next phase of exploration, comparing and contrasting the rocks we see on the rim to both each other and those previously explored in the mission will be an important part of our scientific investigations.
The whole Mars 2020 science team is incredibly excited to be embarking on the next phase of Perseverance’s adventure, and we expect these results, and the samples we collect along the way, to inform our understanding of not just Jezero itself, but the planet Mars as a whole. We can’t wait to share what we find!
Written by Eleni Ravanis, PhD Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Share
Details
Last Updated Aug 27, 2024 Related Terms
Blogs Explore More
4 min read Sols 4284–4286: Environmental Science Extravaganza
Article
1 day ago
3 min read Sols 4282-4283: Bumping Away from Kings Canyon
Article
1 day ago
2 min read Sols 4280-4281: Last Call at Kings Canyon
Article
1 week ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
View the full article
-
By NASA
2 min read
Hubble Captures Unique Ultraviolet View of a Spectacular Star Cluster
NASA, ESA, and C. Murray (Space Telescope Science Institute); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Roughly 210,000 light-years away, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of our Milky Way galaxy’s closest neighbors. In fact, this small galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s “satellite” galaxies, which orbit our home spiral galaxy.
Nested within the SMC is this spectacular star cluster, known as NGC 346. Its hot stars unleash a torrent of radiation and energetic outflows, which erode the denser portions of gas and dust in the surrounding nebula, N66. Dozens of hot, blue, and high-mass stars shine within NGC 346, and astronomers believe this cluster contains more than half of the known high-mass stars in the whole SMC.
This inset image shows the location of NGC 346 within the Small Magellanic Cloud. NASA, ESA, C. Murray (Space Telescope Science Institute), and ESO/VISTA VMC; Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed this cluster before, but its new view shows NGC 346 in ultraviolet light, along with some visible-light data. Ultraviolet light helps scientists understand more about star formation and evolution, and Hubble – with its combined sharp resolution and position above our UV-blocking atmosphere – is the only telescope with the ability to make sensitive, ultraviolet observations.
These two Hubble images of NGC 346 show the star cluster in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths of light. NASA, ESA, A. James (STScI), and C. Murray (Space Telescope Science Institute); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) These specific observations were gathered to learn more about how star formation shapes the interstellar medium, which is the gas distributed throughout seemingly empty space, in a low-metallicity galaxy like the SMC. Astronomers call elements heavier than hydrogen and helium “metals,” and the SMC contains fewer metals when compared to most parts of our Milky Way. This condition helps make it an excellent example of a galaxy similar to those that existed in our early universe, when very few heavy elements were around to incorporate.
Download Image
Explore More
Hubble’s Galaxies
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Aug 26, 2024 Editor Michelle Belleville Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Stars Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble Science
Hubble’s Galaxies
Stars
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.