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Curiosity goes where water once flowed

September 28, 2012

by yaska77

NASA’s Curiosity rover has returned images showing evidence of an ancient, flowing stream on Mars after a close examination of two outcrops called “Hottah” and “Link”.

The rock outcrop shown below (named “Hottah” after Hottah Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories) may look like broken up pavement, but it is actually exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together.

This is what geologists call a “sedimentary conglomerate“. Scientists theorise that the bedrock was disrupted in the past (giving it the tilted angle) most likely through meteorite impacts.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence for ancient flowing streams on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock.

Hottah has pieces of gravel embedded in it, called clasts (one of which is circled above), up to a couple inches in size and located within a matrix of sand-sized material. Some of the clasts are round in shape, leading to the conclusion they were transported by a vigorous flow of water.

This set of images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars on the left, with similar rocks seen on Earth on the right (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI

The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded, and the similarity to pebbles found desposited in Earth’s streams and rivers is striking.

“The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn’t be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow,” said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater which is Curiosity’s ultimate destination. Once there the rover will examine the sedimentary layers in the hope it will discover evidence of organic deposits, therefore confirming the past existance of life on Mars.

This is a truly exciting find!

Source: NASA MSL

Posted in Astronomy, Curiosity, Mars, NASA, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Latest Curiosity images from Mars

August 7, 2012

by yaska77

We promised you images and here are the latest batch from NASA JPL, sent from Curiosity over the last couple of days. We start first though with a fantastic image captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and it’s HiRISE camera!

This image was taken just moments after Curiosity’s descent speed had slowed from thousands of kilometers per hour to just hundreds (click to enlarge) Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In the expanded view you can see the band details on the “supersonic” parachute, and even the hole in the centre, as Curiosity heads towards a famous landing! When fully deployed the craft experienced over 9G of force as it slowed.

Here you can see Curiosity’s heat shield as it drops away from the rover during descent (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The image above was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument (known as MARDI) and shows the 15-foot (4.5-meter) diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet (16 meters) from the spacecraft.

It was obtained two and a half minutes before touchdown on the surface of Mars and about three seconds after heat shield separation.

Curiosity eyes up its main science target, Mount Sharp, which sits in the middle of the Gale Crater (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The rover’s shadow can be seen in the foreground above, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the peak of Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons) at a height of about 3.4 miles, the base of which the Curiosity team will target as scientists believe it will hold clues to past environmental change.

The first colour image acquired from the surface by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In the distance, the image above shows the north wall and rim of the Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI’s removable dust cover is coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover’s terminal descent.

Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks (as the cover won’t be opened until around a week after landing).

Considering these images are the tip of what should become a very large iceberg, and Curiosity hasn’t yet properly woken up, there is so much promise and excitement surrounding Curiosity at the moment, and rightly so.

What fantastic times we live in :)

Source: NASA MSL

Posted in Astronomy, Curiosity, Image gallery, Mars, NASA, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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NASA lands car-sized Curiosity rover on Mars – first images released

August 6, 2012

by yaska77

NASA has successfully landed the most advanced Mars rover ever built on the surface of the Red Planet.

The one-tonne, car-sized Curiosity, hanging by cables from a “sky crane” (rocket  backpack essentially) touched down earlier this morning ending a 36-week flight, and was greeted by cheers and hi-fives in the NASA control room monitoring the descent.

Artist’s concept shows how the “sky crane” slowly and precisely lowered Curiosity onto the surface of Mars – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity reportedly succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

One of the first images received from Curiosity after landing on Mars. You can see dust around the sides of the image kicked up during the landing (which will clear when the lens covers come off) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said of the achievement “Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars – or if the planet can sustain life in the future.”

“This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030′s, and today’s landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal.”

Another higher-res image from the rover (received a few hours after landing) shows more detail of the Martian surface, and one of the rear wheels of Curiosity – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity landed at 22:32 PDT on 5th August (05:32 UTC/06:32 BST on 6th August) near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater. During its two-year primary mission, the rover will investigate whether the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.

NASA will now be taking time to check all systems over the next few days (into weeks) before embarking on their primary mission.  We’ll be following developments closely and will share any new images as they’re released, with the first colour image of Curiosity’s surroundings expected in the next couple of days.

This is the fourth rover NASA has put on Mars, but the scale (and sophistication) of Curiosity dwarfs all previous projects.

You can watch the moment NASA received confirmation of success below via NASA TV Channel on YouTube.

You can read more detail about the Mars Science Laboratory and it’s fascinating mission here!

Source: NASA

Posted in Astronomy, Curiosity, Mars, NASA, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Transit of Venus 2012 – My “last in our lifetime” washout (but with a silver lining…)

June 6, 2012

by yaska77

The alarm went off just after 4am this morning. Dragging myself to the window in the hope last night’s rain had passed and the sky would allow unrestricted access to the transit of Venus, I drew back the curtains to find a dull cloudy grey blanket with occasional downpours of rain.

On June 5 2012, SDO captured this image of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/SDO, HMI

I waited up for half an hour to see if there was any sign of improvement, and if anything it rained more.

While the images already being posted online in their hundreds provide a great catalogue of this special event, I personally lucked out again thanks to the British weather.

Typically, when I got up later the clouds were breaking and the Sun could be seen.  I’m prepared to admit I spent rather a lot of time making a homemade solar filter for my camera using Baader AstroSolar Safety Film, so I was certainly not going to waste a chance to at least test it.

By cutting a hole of equal size in two squares of card, you can then fix the solar film between them, then make a collar for your lens by wrapping strips of card around it and then fixing it to the filter square (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The next image that follows is bittersweet for me. Sweet in the fact that I’ve been able to image the Sun using a standard zoom lens on my Canon Eos 550D for the first time, but bitter because is shows I could clearly have captured the Venus transit this morning if only the weather had played ball.

C’est la vie.

Shot from my own back garden, the sunspots match those in the SDO image at the top, so I could have captured my own bit of history (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Sadly my image is missing the very important detail of the planet Venus during transit, as the sunspots match those seen in the SDO image released by NASA.  If only it could have held out for a few more hours (ha!) I’d have got it, and with some degree of clarity too. Not to be seen again until 2117…

Using this solar filter however has sparked an idea, one which will require some more sunspot activity but also a week of good weather with clear skies at about the same time of the day for several days in a row.

I’d like to show the relative movement of similar massive sunspots over a short period of time.

So should this come to fruition the transit blocking clouds may well have had a silver lining :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Space, Sun, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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Venus, Moon and Jupiter conjunction photos

March 27, 2012

by yaska77

Following on from our last post which featured a couple of conjunction images from the middle of March, we’ve been out snapping again to capture the conjunction with the new crescent Moon!

Shot with a Canon Eos 550D and a 50mm lens at f/2.8 ISO100 on a 3 sec exposure - Venus, Jupiter and the Moon on 24th March 2012 (click to enlarge) Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The photograph above was taken on Saturday 24th March. Venus shines at the top of the image above Jupiter with three of its moons visible.

The crescent Moon glows faintly with earthshine, where light reflected from the Earth helps show features usually lost in the shadow.

This time a 4 second exposure, f/3.5 ISO100 - More of the Moon is lit by the Sun as it shines next to Venus (Jupiter is below the cloud) from 26th March 2012 (click to enlarge) Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The image above was taken two days after the first photo on Monday 26th March, and you can see how much more of the waxing crescent Moon is lit.  Some of Jupiter’s moons are also visible again (at full size).

This evening the Moon sits between the Hyades and Pleiades clusters (see our Monthly Guide for details) and if it stays clear we’ll be out there again trying to get more shots.

Who could ever get bored of imaging the night sky?!

Clear skies all :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Jupiter, Moon, Planets, Stars, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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