In this 6th session of the internet-based live lectures between Universities and Institutes, Dr Jorge Vago (ESA) discusses missions to Mars and in particular the European mission ExoMars.
ExoMars’s scientific objectives are:
1) To search for signs of past and present life;
2) To identify surface hazards to future human Mars missions; and
3) To characterise, in the shallow subsurface, … Read the rest of this article
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This view of layered rocks on the floor of McLaughlin Crater shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded the image. A combination of clues suggests this 1.4-mile-deep (2.2-kilometer-deep) crater once held a lake fed by groundwater. Part of the …
StarGazing Live is a program run over 3 consecutive days by the BBC at the beginning of each year. This year, it ran from Jan 8th-10th (other things have prevented me from writing out it this week).
The programs cover a range of topics in the world of astronomy and are co-presented live by Prof. Brian Cox and comedian Dara … Read the rest of this article
This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity shows the patch of rock cleaned by the first use of the rover’s Dust Removal Tool (DRT). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has completed first-time use of a brush it carries to sweep dust off rocks.
Nearing the end of a series of first-time … Read the rest of this article
NASA-funded researchers analyzing a small meteorite that may be the first discovered from the Martian surface or crust have found it contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites from unknown origins.
This new class of meteorite was found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert. Designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed “Black Beauty,” it weighs approximately 11 ounces … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity’s arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover.
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This is a view of the third (left) and …
The Mars Science Laboratory, nicknamed “Curiosity,” was a feat of passion and engineering unparalleled for some time. As the space shuttles retired from service and NASA struggled to find a direction (publicly speaking) this newest Mars rover plummeted toward the surface of The Red Planet with a novel and complex landing system. The rover’s size and intricacy was a big … Read the rest of this article
For the first time, ESA’s Mars orbiter has relayed scientific data from NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet’s surface. The data included detailed images of ‘Rocknest3’ and were received by ESA’s deep-space antenna in Australia.
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This image (click for larger view) was taken on Sol 57 (4 October 2012) of target Rocknest3 using the ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) on …
NASA will hosted a media teleconference on Nov. 15, 2012 to provide an update about the Curiosity rover’s mission to Mars’ Gale Crater.
The Mars Science Laboratory Project and its Curiosity rover are three months into a two-year prime mission to investigate whether conditions may have been favorable for microbial life.
Images from the video are available here.
NASA’s car-sized rover, Curiosity, has taken significant steps toward understanding how Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere.
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This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA’s Curiosity rover. This demonstration uses visible lasers – rather than the …
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
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