Sol 4622, January 24, 2017. As Opportunity reaches the upper part of the rim slope, the vista forward begins to open. Above is the wider Navcam composite view, while the Pancam, used here in “scouting mode,” shows a smaller portion of the view ahead at higher resolution below. Both images enlarge when clicked.
Opportunity raw images, its latest mission status, a location map, and atmospheric opacity, known as tau.
Sol 1589-90, January 23, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ryan Anderson: This week most of the Curiosity team is headed out to California for a team meeting. I’m not at the meeting because I have a new baby at home, so I’ll be following along remotely!
Even though there’s a team meeting this week, we’re still keeping the rover busy. Over the weekend the rover drove ~28 meters, and the plan for Sol 1589 continues our slow ascent of Mt. Sharp. ChemCam is still marked “sick” while we sort out the error that occurred last week, so the Sol 1589 science block is heavy on Mastcam. After Navcam does an observation to watch for dust devils, Mastcam will collect mosaics of the targets “Cape Elizabeth”, “Mount Battle”, “Mount Blue”, and “Hematite Ridge”. After that, APXS will measure the composition of… [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, January 24, 2017. This VIS image shows part of the bright material on the floor of Pollack Crater. Erosion by wind action has sculpted the material, forming the linear features that run from bottom right to upper left. The material, while brighter in contrast than the surrounding materials, is not white, despite its former nickname “White Rock.” More about the feature here.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
Disrupted terrain in southern Elysium Planitia.
Beautiful Mars series.
This animated gif shows the build up of frosts in a 73 x 41 km section of the north polar ice cap of Mars between November and December 2004.
The images were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express during its first year at the Red Planet. It has been orbiting Mars for over 13 years.
The first image was taken on 23 November 2004 during orbit 1087, and the second of the same area on 30 December 2004, during orbit 1219. The images are centred at 79.94ºN / 44.11ºE. The interleaving frames in the gif are interpolated to give a smooth appearance.
The north polar icecap comprises layers of water-ice that extend to a depth of around 2 km. The layers result from seasonal melting and deposition of ice mixed with dust. [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, January 23, 2017. Today’s VIS image shows dust devil tracks in Argyre Planitia. The dark streaks are made by dust devil activity scouring the surface and removing the lighter toned dust to reveal the darker rocky surface below.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
The layered bedrock in this image was brought from several kilometers of depth during the formation of this 44 kilometer wide crater in the volcanic plains of Lunae Planum.
As these layers were exhumed and brought to nearly vertical orientations, faulting and fracturing occurred and breccia dikes formed. Breccias are rocks consisting of angular and sharp fragments, and a dike is a fracture that has been widened by forces pulling apart the rock while simultaneously filling it… [More at link]
Sol 1586-88, January 20, 2017, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: MSL drove another 13 meters on Sol 1585, again placing the rover in a good position for contact science. But the telemetry also showed that ChemCam had been marked “sick,” so we will not be able to use ChemCam this weekend while the problem is diagnosed. The weekend plan is still pretty full, though! First, on Sol 1586, Right Mastcam will acquire small mosaics of nearby rocks named “Bell Brook,” “Blind Brook,” and “Beck Pond,” then Left Mastcam will take another image of the rover deck to look for changes in the dust and sand on the deck. The rover will rest until late that afternoon, when the illumination will be good for… [More at link]
Floor