Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. In the next few days, the software on Curiosity will be optimized for surface operation. Image: NASA
The Curiosity rover has returned another postcard from Mars — the first 360-degree color view from Gale Crater.
Since landing Sunday night, NASA's six-wheel rover has been sending home a trickle of pictures, beginning with grainy, black-and-white photos. It also beamed back a low-quality video showing the last few minutes of its descent to the surface.
The Curiosity rover was sent to Mars to document a lot of different things, but one of the things it will be examining on are the weather patterns on the surface of Mars. Today NASA tells USA Today that it’s expecting mostly clear – if not a bit chilly – conditions on the red planet, with NASA scientist Manuel de la Torre saying that Curiosity can expect “balmy, minus-20-degree temperatures” during the day. At night, that already low temperature will plummet, eventually ending up around “minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit.”
If Curiosity only had the cold to deal with, it would be something of a pleasant getaway. These calm conditions aren’t expected to last much longer, however, as dust devils will begin to wreak havoc on the planet’s surface as the seasons change from winter to spring and then eventually summer. The dust devils aren’t even the worst of it either, as they can grow into massive dust storms that swallow the entire planet.
It’s those dust storm that de la Torre is interested in, and the Curiosity is well-equipped to study them. It comes loaded with tools that can measure wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, ground temperature, and air pressure. This weather data that’s collected on the surface will help NASA scientists determine if Mars is suitable for life, or if it ever was at some point in the past.
Ever since the Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars at the beginning of the week, we’ve been treated to one exciting news piece after another. True, talking about the weather on Mars may not be as exciting as seeing images of the surface, but this research is going to do a lot in helping us understand the red planet, and that is definitely something to look forward to. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more posts on the Curiosity rover!
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/pia16034fixed_Malin_blast1-br2.jpg
8.09.2012
A Set of Blast Marks in Color, Left Side
This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground. It comes from the left side of the thumbnail panorama obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. (See PIA16029.)
Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view
August 9, 2012
Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view
This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. In the next few days, the software on Curiosity will be optimized for surface operation. Image: NASA
The Curiosity rover has returned another postcard from Mars the first 360-degree color view from Gale Crater.
Since landing Sunday night, NASA's six-wheel rover has been sending home a trickle of pictures, beginning with grainy, black-and-white photos. It also beamed back a low-quality video showing the last few minutes of its descent to the surface.
Click on the link to make it enlarge!
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/1-marsroversen.jpg
A small, flat rock known as Coronation suffered the wrath of Curiosity’s laser when the Mars rover finally fired up its ChemCam instrument and delivered 30 pulses of energy at the rock over a 10-second period.
The laser pulses, each delivering more than 1 million watts of power for around 5 one-billionths of a second, turn some of the rock’s atoms into a glowing, ionized plasma. By analyzing the light from the plasma, the ChemCam’s three spectrometers can determine what elements are in the rock.
“We got a great spectrum of Coronation — lots of signal,” Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, leader of the ChemCam scientific team, said in a press release today. “Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it’s payoff time!”
The rock formerly known as N165 was selected as a good target for Curiosity to test its laser on. Scientists are using the data to learn how ChemCam is working, but they were impressed with the quality of the data, which are even better than the data acquired during testing on Earth, and they may learn something about the rock as well.
“It’s surprising that the data are even better than we ever had during tests on Earth, in signal-to-noise ratio,” ChemCam scientist Sylvestre Maurice of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP) in Toulouse, France, said in the press release. “It’s so rich, we can expect great science from investigating what might be thousands of targets with ChemCam in the next two years.”
hmm
rocks and sand
just like every other damn time
whats the debt?
Some people want to get us into a trillion dollar war with Iran.
Wow more dirt.
hmm
rocks and sand
just like every other damn time
whats the debt?
We spend this every few hour within the middle east.
Stupid people bitch about the small stuff and turn a blind eye at the real reason for the debt.
hmm
rocks and sand
just like every other damn time
whats the debt?
We spend this every few hour within the middle east.
Stupid people bitch about the small stuff and turn a blind eye at the real reason for the debt.
apples too rocks
killing terrorist to keep them from killing us is a lot different than dumping billions to look at stones
Has anyone else noticed matthew's rants have nothing to do with anything being discussed?
