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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Captures Colorful Clouds Drifting Over Mars
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sees its tracks receding into the distance at a site nicknamed “Ubajara” on April 30, 2023. This site is where Curiosity made the discovery of siderite, a mineral that may help explain the fate of the planet’s thicker ancient atmosphere.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS New findings from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover could provide an answer to the mystery of what happened to the planet’s ancient atmosphere and how Mars has evolved over time.
Researchers have long believed that Mars once had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and liquid water on the planet’s surface. That carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with Martian rocks to create carbonate minerals. Until now, though, rover missions and near-infrared spectroscopy analysis from Mars-orbiting satellites haven’t found the amounts of carbonate on the planet’s surface predicted by this theory.
Reported in an April paper in Science, data from three of Curiosity’s drill sites revealed the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, within the sulfate-rich rocky layers of Mount Sharp in Mars’ Gale Crater.
“The discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars,” said Benjamin Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, and lead author of the paper.
To study the Red Planet’s chemical and mineral makeup, Curiosity drills three to four centimeters down into the subsurface, then drops the powdered rock samples into its CheMin instrument. The instrument, led by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, uses X-ray diffraction to analyze rocks and soil. CheMin’s data was processed and analyzed by scientists at the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“Drilling through the layered Martian surface is like going through a history book,” said Thomas Bristow, research scientist at NASA Ames and coauthor of the paper. “Just a few centimeters down gives us a good idea of the minerals that formed at or close to the surface around 3.5 billion years ago.”
The discovery of this carbonate mineral in rocks beneath the surface suggests that carbonate may be masked by other minerals in near-infrared satellite analysis. If other sulfate-rich layers across Mars also contain carbonates, the amount of stored carbon dioxide would be a fraction of that needed in the ancient atmosphere to create conditions warm enough to support liquid water. The rest could be hidden in other deposits or have been lost to space over time.
In the future, missions or analyses of other sulfate-rich areas on Mars could confirm these findings and help us better understand the planet’s early history and how it transformed as its atmosphere was lost.
Curiosity, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP) portfolio, was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information on Curiosity, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity
News Media Contacts
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Apr 17, 2025 Related Terms
Ames Research Center Astromaterials Curiosity (Rover) General Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Explore More
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Piloted by NASA’s Tim Williams, the ER-2 science aircraft ascends for one of the final science flights for the GSFC Lidar Observation and Validation Experiment (GLOVE) on Feb. 1, 2025. As a collaboration between engineers, scientists, and aircraft professionals, GLOVE aims to improve satellite data products for Earth Science applications. NASA/Steve Freeman In February, NASA’s ER-2 science aircraft flew instruments designed to improve satellite data products and Earth science observations. From data collection to processing, satellite systems continue to advance, and NASA is exploring how instruments analyzing clouds can improve data measurement methods.
Researchers participating in the Goddard Space Flight Center Lidar Observation and Validation Experiment (GLOVE) used the ER-2 – based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California – to validate satellite data about cloud and airborne particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists are using GLOVE instruments installed onboard the aircraft to measure and validate data about clouds generated by satellite sensors already orbiting in space around Earth.
“The GLOVE data will allow us to test new artificial intelligence algorithms in data processing,” said John Yorks, principal investigator for GLOVE and research physical scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “These algorithms aim to improve the cloud and aerosol detection in data produced by the satellites.”
Jennifer Moore, a researcher from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, checks the cabling on the Roscoe instrument at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, for the GSFC Lidar Observation and Validation Experiment (GLOVE) on Feb. 1, 2025. The Roscoe instrument will be uploaded onto NASA’s ER-2 science aircraft.NASA/Steve Freeman The validation provided by GLOVE is crucial because it ensures the accuracy and reliability of satellite data. “The instruments on the plane provide a higher resolution measurement ‘truth’ to ensure the data is a true representation of the atmospheric scene being sampled,” Yorks said.
The ER-2 flew over various parts of Oregon, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, as well as over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. These regions reflected various types of atmospheres, including cirrus clouds, marine stratocumulus, rain and snow, and areas with multiple types of clouds.
“The goal is to improve satellite data products for Earth science applications,” Yorks said. “These measurements allow scientists and decision-makers to confidently use this satellite information for applications like weather forecasting and hazard monitoring.”
Researcher Jackson Begolka from the University of Iowa examines instrument connectors onboard the ER-2 aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Feb. 1, 2025. The GLOVE instrument will validate data from satellites orbiting the Earth.NASA/Steve Freeman The four instruments installed on the ER-2 were the Cloud Physics Lidar, the Roscoe Lidar, the enhanced Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Airborne Simulator, and the Cloud Radar System. These instruments validate data produced by sensors on NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) and the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE), a joint venture between the ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).
“Additionally, the EarthCARE satellite is flying the first ever Doppler radar for measurements of air motions within clouds,” Yorks said. While the ER-2 is operated by pilots and aircrew from NASA Armstrong, these instruments are supported by scientists from NASA Goddard, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and the Naval Research Laboratory office in Monterey, California, as well as by students from the University of Iowa in Iowa City and the University of Maryland College Park.
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Last Updated Apr 16, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactErica HeimLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
Armstrong Flight Research Center Airborne Science Earth Science Earth Science Technology Office Earth's Atmosphere ER-2 Goddard Space Flight Center Explore More
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:02:14 On 12 March 2025, ESA’s Hera spacecraft soared just 5000 km above Mars and passed within 300 km of its distant moon, Deimos. Captured by Hera’s 1020x1020 pixel Asteroid Framing Camera, this video sequence offers a rare view of the red planet and its enigmatic moon. The original greyscale images have been colour-enhanced based on known surface features.
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By NASA
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NASA has announced the winners of it’s 31st Human Exploration Rover Challenge . The annual engineering competition – one of the agency’s longest standing student challenges – wrapped up on April 11 and April 12, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA NASA has announced the winning student teams in the 2025 Human Exploration Rover Challenge. This year’s competition challenged teams to design, build, and test a lunar rover powered by either human pilots or remote control. In the human-powered division, Parish Episcopal School in Dallas, Texas, earned first place in the high school division, and the Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, captured the college and university title. In the remote-control division, Bright Foundation in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, earned first place in the middle and high school division, and the Instituto Tecnologico de Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic, captured the college and university title.
The annual engineering competition – one of NASA’s longest standing student challenges – wrapped up on April 11 and April 12, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The complete list of 2025 award winners is provided below:
Human-Powered High School Division
First Place: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas, Texas Second Place: Ecambia High School, Pensacola, Florida Third Place: Centro Boliviano Americano – Santa Cruz, Bolivia Human-Powered College/University Division
First Place: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Second Place: Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Third Place: University of Alabama in Huntsville Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division
First Place: Bright Foundation, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada Second Place: Assumption College, Brangrak, Bangkok, Thailand Third Place: Erie High School, Erie, Colorado Remote-Control College/University Division
First Place: Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Second Place: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Third Place: Tecnologico de Monterey – Campus Cuernvaca, Xochitepec, Morelos, Mexico Ingenuity Award
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Phoenix Award
Human-Powered High School Division: International Hope School of Bangladesh, Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh College/University Division: Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division: Bright Foundation, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada College/University Division: Southwest Oklahoma State University, Weatherford, Oklahoma Task Challenge Award
Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division: Assumption College, Bangrak, Bangkok, Thailand College/University Division: Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Project Review Award
Human-Powered High School Division: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas, Texas College/University Division: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division: Bright Foundation, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada College/University Division: Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Featherweight Award
Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Safety Award
Human-Powered High School Division: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas, Texas College/University Division: University of Alabama in Huntsville Crash and Burn Award
Universidad de Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico (Human-Powered Division) Team Spirit Award
Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Human-Powered Division) STEM Engagement Award
Human-Powered High School Division: Albertville Innovation School, Albertville, Alabama College/University Division: Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division: Instituto Salesiano Don Bosco, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic College/University Division: Tecnologico de Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico Social Media Award
Human-Powered High School Division: International Hope School of Bagladesh, Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh College/University Division: Universidad Catolica Boliviana “San Pablo” La Paz, Bolivia Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division: ATLAS SkillTech University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India College/University Division: Instituto Salesiano Don Bosco, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Most Improved Performance Award
Human-Powered High School Division: Space Education Institute, Leipzig, Germany College/University Division: Purdue University Northwest, Hammond, Indiana Remote-Control Middle School/High School Division: Erie High School, Erie, Colorado College/University Division: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Pit Crew Award
Human-Powered High School Division: Academy of Arts, Career, and Technology, Reno, Nevada College/University Division: Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Artemis Educator Award
Fabion Diaz Palacious from Universidad Catolica Boliviana “San Pablo” La Paz, Bolivia Rookie of the Year
Deira International School, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
More than 500 students with 75 teams from around the world participated in the 31st year of the competition. Participating teams represented 35 colleges and universities, 38 high schools, and two middle schools from 20 states, Puerto Rico, and 16 other nations. Teams were awarded points based on navigating a half-mile obstacle course, conducting mission-specific task challenges, and completing multiple safety and design reviews with NASA engineers.
NASA expanded the 2025 challenge to include a remote-control division, Remote-Operated Vehicular Research, and invited middle school students to participate.
“This student design challenge encourages the next generation of scientists and engineers to engage in the design process by providing innovative concepts and unique perspectives,” said Vemitra Alexander, who leads the challenge for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall. “This challenge also continues NASA’s legacy of providing valuable experiences to students who may be responsible for planning future space missions, including crewed missions to other worlds.”
The rover challenge is one of NASA’s eight Artemis Student Challenges reflecting the goals of the Artemis campaign, which will land Americans on the Moon while establishing a long-term presence for science and exploration, preparing for future human missions to Mars. NASA uses such challenges to encourage students to pursue degrees and careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The competition is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall. Since its inception in 1994, more than 15,000 students have participated – with many former students now working at NASA, or within the aerospace industry.
To learn more about the Human Exploration Rover Challenge, please visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge/home/index.html
News Media Contact
Taylor Goodwin
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Captures a Star’s Swan Song
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the planetary nebula Kohoutek 4-55. ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space in this stunning image seem surreal, like a portal to another world opening up before us. In fact, the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is very real. We are seeing vast clouds of ionized atoms and molecules, thrown into space by a dying star. This is a planetary nebula named Kohoutek 4-55, a member of the Milky Way galaxy situated just 4,600 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan).
Planetary nebulae are the spectacular final display at the end of a giant star’s life. Once a red giant star has exhausted its available fuel and shed its last layers of gas, its compact core will contract further, enabling a final burst of nuclear fusion. The exposed core reaches extremely hot temperatures, radiating ultraviolet light that energizes the enormous clouds of gas cast off by the star. The ultraviolet light ionizes atoms in the gas, making the clouds glow brightly. In this image, red and orange indicate nitrogen, green is hydrogen, and blue shows oxygen. Kohoutek 4-55 has an uncommon, multi-layered form: a faint layer of gas surrounds a bright inner ring, all wrapped in a broad halo of ionized nitrogen. The spectacle is bittersweet, as the brief phase of fusion in the core will end after only tens of thousands of years, leaving a white dwarf that will never illuminate the clouds around it again.
This image itself was also the final work of one of Hubble’s instruments: the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Installed in 1993 to replace the original Wide Field and Planetary Camera, WFPC2 was responsible for some of Hubble’s most enduring images and fascinating discoveries. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 replaced WFPC2 in 2009, during Hubble’s final servicing mission. A mere ten days before astronauts removed Hubble’s WFPC2 from the telescope, the instrument collected the data used in this image: a fitting send-off after 16 years of discoveries. Image processors used the latest and most advanced processing techniques to bring the data to life one more time, producing this breathtaking new view of Kohoutek 4-55.
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Last Updated Apr 10, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Emission Nebulae Goddard Space Flight Center Nebulae Planetary Nebulae Stars The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
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