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  • NASA rover shares moody image of Mars moon Deimos

    Once in a while, you might look up and marvel at magnificent views of our moon, its surface dramatically lit by our sun’s light. But have you ever paused to wonder what other moons might look like from the surfaces of other planets in our solar system?

    NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Mars since arriving there in dramatic fashion in 2021, has just shared an exquisite image of Deimos, one of the red planet’s two moons. 

    “Wishing upon a … moon?” NASA’s Perseverance team, based in California, wrote in a post on the rover’s X account on Thursday, adding: “That bright ‘star’ is actually Mars’ moon Deimos.”

    Perseverance captured the image in March “in the hours before dawn” via a long-exposure using its left Navcam. The picture also includes two stars — Regulus and Algieba — from the constellation Leo, which NASA has helpfully pointed out:

    Deimos above the surface of Mars.
    NASA

    With a diameter of 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers), Deimos, which scientists believe is likely to be a captured asteroid, is much smaller than Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of 2,159 miles (3,474 kilometers). 

    And while Deimos orbits Mars at a distance of 14,577 miles (23,460 kilometers), Earth’s next door neighbor orbits at a far greater distance of about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers).

    Also, our moon has a spherical shape, whereas Deimos has an irregular form that NASA has rather unflatteringly described as “potato-shaped.”

    The rover’s image offers a refreshing departure from its usual focus on the martian terrain where it’s searching for signs of ancient microbial life, allowing us to appreciate for a moment the broader cosmic context of Perseverance’s mission. 

    In many ways, the striking photo is more than just a technical achievement as it also offers a moment of reflection during the rover’s epic mission to seek knowledge beyond our home planet.

  • NASA captures remarkable aerial image of Curiosity driving across Mars

    NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured what’s believed to be the first orbital image of the Curiosity rover “on the move.”

    The remarkable photograph, enhanced to bring out the details, clearly shows the tracks created by Curiosity’s six wheels as it rolls across the red planet’s barren landscape, with a tiny speck denoting the rover itself. 

    “NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has never been camera shy, having been seen in selfies and images taken from space. But on February 28 … Curiosity was captured in what is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the red planet.” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is overseeing the Curiosity mission, said in a post.

    The image was taken by the MRO’s HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, with the tracks calculated to be about 1,050 feet (320 meters) in length. Curiosity is shown close to the base of a steep slope, which JPL says the rover has since ascended. The vehicle, which arrived on Mars in 2012, drives using a combination of remote commands from Earth and onboard autonomy, with JPL engineers working alongside scientists to plan each day’s trek.

    NASA said the tracks will probably remain visible “for months” before martian winds erase them.

    “They represent roughly 11 drives starting on February 2 as Curiosity trucked along at a top speed of 0.1 mph (0.16 kph) from Gediz Vallis channel on the journey to its next science stop,” JPL said. 

    NASA’s rover has been spending its time studying whether Mars ever had environmental conditions suitable for microbial life. It’s also been gathering data on the planet’s climate and geology, and analyzing the environment in preparation for future crewed missions.

    MRO orbits Mars at an altitude ranging from about 155 to 196 miles (250 to 315 kilometers), with its primary mission goals to study Mars’ geology and climate, search for signs of water, and support other Mars missions by relaying data and scouting potential landing sites for future missions.

    Curiosity isn’t the only NASA rover trundling across the martian surface. The more advanced Perseverance rover has been on the red planet since arriving there in a spectacular touchdown — captured on hi-res video — in 2021.

    On a clear night, you can view Mars up until November. So the next time you spot it, pause for a moment to consider that on that distant planet, NASA has a couple of rovers tootling about, performing science research dreamed up by humans all the way back here on Earth. 

  • NASA captures remarkable aerial image of Curiosity driving across Mars

    NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured what’s believed to be the first orbital image of the Curiosity rover “on the move.”

    The remarkable photograph, enhanced to bring out the details, clearly shows the tracks created by Curiosity’s six wheels as it rolls across the red planet’s barren landscape, with a tiny speck denoting the rover itself. 

    “NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has never been camera shy, having been seen in selfies and images taken from space. But on February 28 … Curiosity was captured in what is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the red planet.” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is overseeing the Curiosity mission, said in a post.

    The image was taken by the MRO’s HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, with the tracks calculated to be about 1,050 feet (320 meters) in length. Curiosity is shown close to the base of a steep slope, which JPL says the rover has since ascended. The vehicle, which arrived on Mars in 2012, drives using a combination of remote commands from Earth and onboard autonomy, with JPL engineers working alongside scientists to plan each day’s trek.

    NASA said the tracks will probably remain visible “for months” before martian winds erase them.

    “They represent roughly 11 drives starting on February 2 as Curiosity trucked along at a top speed of 0.1 mph (0.16 kph) from Gediz Vallis channel on the journey to its next science stop,” JPL said. 

    NASA’s rover has been spending its time studying whether Mars ever had environmental conditions suitable for microbial life. It’s also been gathering data on the planet’s climate and geology, and analyzing the environment in preparation for future crewed missions.

    MRO orbits Mars at an altitude ranging from about 155 to 196 miles (250 to 315 kilometers), with its primary mission goals to study Mars’ geology and climate, search for signs of water, and support other Mars missions by relaying data and scouting potential landing sites for future missions.

    Curiosity isn’t the only NASA rover trundling across the martian surface. The more advanced Perseverance rover has been on the red planet since arriving there in a spectacular touchdown — captured on hi-res video — in 2021.

    On a clear night, you can view Mars up until November. So the next time you spot it, pause for a moment to consider that on that distant planet, NASA has a couple of rovers tootling about, performing science research dreamed up by humans all the way back here on Earth. 

  • NASA’s Mars is rover finding ‘intriguing rocks everywhere’ on crater rim

    Perseverance’s challenging three-and-a-half month climb out of Jezero Crater has definitely been worth it, with NASA reportedly discovering a fascinating array of rocks worthy of detailed examination. 

    “During previous science campaigns in Jezero, it could take several months to find a rock that was significantly different from the last rock we sampled and scientifically unique enough for sampling,” said Perseverance project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is overseeing the rover mission. “But up here on the crater rim, there are new and intriguing rocks everywhere the rover turns. It’s been all we had hoped for and more.”

    The rover’s ongoing work is helping scientists to gain greater knowledge about the red planet’s history and evolution, though its ultimate aim is to find out whether any kind of life form ever existed there. 

    Perseverance completed its climb out of Jezero Crater in December 2024, ascending 1,640 feet (500 meters) while making a few stops along the way to carry out various science observations.

    Since the six-wheeled rover began exploring the rim in January, Perseverance has collected five rock samples that in the coming years could be returned to Earth for closer study in laboratory conditions.

    It has also carried out detailed analysis of seven rocks and analyzed another 83 from a distance by zapping them with a laser. 

    Scientists are finding the western rim of Jezero Crater to be particularly fruitful due to ancient meteor impacts in the area that disturbed the underlying rocks, bringing them to the surface.

    Perseverance collected its first crater-rim rock sample, named “Silver Mountain,” soon after reaching the top of the crater. NASA said the rock that it came from likely formed at least 3.9 billion years ago during Mars’ earliest geologic period, and may have been broken up and recrystallized during an ancient meteor impact. Scientists have suggested that it’s the oldest sample collected by the rover to date.

    Perseverance’s mission began in earnest in 2021 when it touched down on the martian surface in dramatic fashion — a moment captured in incredible detail by cameras attached to both the rover and the spacecraft that dropped it off.

  • NASA’s Curiosity rover has found the longest chain carbon molecules yet on Mars

    NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has detected the largest organic (carbon-containing) molecules ever found on the red planet. The discovery is one of the most significant findings in the search for evidence of past life on Mars. This is because, on Earth at least, relatively complex, long-chain carbon molecules are involved in biology. These molecules could actually be fragments of fatty acids, which are found in, for example, the membranes surrounding biological cells.

    Scientists think that, if life ever emerged on Mars, it was probably microbial in nature. Because microbes are so small, it’s difficult to be definitive about any potential evidence for life found on Mars. Such evidence needs more powerful scientific instruments that are too large to be put on a rover.

    The organic molecules found by Curiosity consist of carbon atoms linked in long chains, with other elements bonded to them, like hydrogen and oxygen. They come from a 3.7-billion-year-old rock dubbed Cumberland, encountered by the rover at a presumed dried-up lakebed in Mars’s Gale Crater. Scientists used the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the NASA rover to make their discovery.

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