Sol 2359, March 27, 2019. Curiosity has driven about 29 meters (95 feet) in a northeast direction across the clay-bearing unit. The south side of Vera Rubin Ridge forms the skyline on the left side of the rover, and there’s a small layered outcrop poking up through the soil ahead on the right. The Navcam composite view above looks forward, the one below looks aft. Click either image to enlarge it.
Sol 2359 raw images (from all cameras).
THEMIS Image of the Day, March 27, 2019. This false-color VIS image is located in central Acidalia Planitia. The crater just off the edge at the bottom part of the image is Bonestell Crater. The crater towards the top of the image is unnamed. Blue tones in false color images indicated basaltic sand.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
Explore more THEMIS Images of the Day by geological subject.
Earth is a very special planet. It is the only celestial body in the Solar System on which we know life exists. Could there be life on other planets or moons? Mars is always the first to be mentioned in this context; it has many properties in common with Earth, and in its geological past water also flowed over its surface. Today, however, conditions on Mars are so extreme that it is hard to imagine that organisms like those found on Earth could survive on that cold and arid desert planet.
One of the aims of the DLR-coordinated experiment BIOMEX (BIOlogy and Mars EXperiment) on the International Space Station (ISS) was to find out if this is indeed possible. The results are now available.
One key result is that, in fact, several terrestrial biological substances and structures are very tough. They survived very challenging environmental conditions during an 18-month stress test in space. The tests involved samples of different organisms such as bacteria, algae, lichens and fungi being exposed to vacuum, intense ultraviolet radiation and extreme temperature variations on the exterior of the ISS for a total of 533 days.
Astrobiologist Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof, the person responsible for the scientific management of BIOMEX, was impressed.
“Some of the organisms and biomolecules showed tremendous resistance to radiation in outer space and actually returned to Earth as ‘survivors’ from space,” he noted. “Among other things, we studied archaea, which are unicellular microorganisms that have existed on Earth for over three-and-a-half billion years, living in salty seawater. Our ‘test subjects’ are relatives of theirs that have been isolated in the Arctic permafrost. They have survived in space conditions and are also detectable with our instruments. Such single-celled organisms could be candidates for life forms that might be found on Mars.” [More at link]
Sols 2359-60, March 25, 2019, update by MSL scientist Vivian Sun: At the start of Sol 2359, Curiosity found herself parked in front of some layered bedrock outcrops (see above image), a rarity in the rubbly landscapes that we’ve explored so far in the clay-bearing unit. We were constrained by power in today’s plan, but managed to make use of every available minute for science.
As part of our routine documentation of the chemical and textural variations in this region, APXS and MAHLI will be making observations of “Rutherglen” to measure composition and detailed texture. ChemCam will also measure the composition of “Woodland Bay,” another bedrock exposure in the workspace. We will also take a couple of Mastcam mosaics – one of the entire workspace to get a better look at the outcrop layering and structure, and to bring color to the tonal variations in the Navcam images. Another Mastcam mosaic will be of “Goosander,” an aeolian bedform that also shows tonal variations, visible at the top of the above image. [More at link]
Layered bedrock to the northwest of Hellas Planitia. There are some very nice geologic contacts in this region.
HiRISE Picture of the Day archive [More at links]
An exciting new competition is giving citizens of planet Earth the opportunity to get their voices to Mars in the next phase of the ExoMars programme. The ExoMars rover and platform will launch to the Red Planet in 2020.
The joint ESA-Roscosmos mission will investigate, among other things, signs of lightning on Mars using a scientific instrument mounted on the Kazachok surface platform, which arrived to Europe from Russia this week for final assembly. Now your voice can be a part of the mission. (…)
Researchers want to investigate the existence of lightning discharges on Mars by measuring fluctuations in the electromagnetic field within the range of audible frequencies. Other observations have shown that lightning exists on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, but Mars is still unknown.
While the Rosalind Franklin rover explores its surroundings at the landing site, Oxia Planum, the Czech-made electromagnetic wave analyser, that is part of the MAIGRET instrument mounted on the Kazachok platform, will scan for electromagnetic frequencies that are typical of lightning discharges. In addition to listening for lightning, the platform will also study the climate, atmosphere, radiation, and the possible presence of subsurface water ice in the landing site and surrounding areas.
Ondrej Santolik, principal investigator for the instrument explains: “We need to store test data on the instrument’s memory chip to transmit back to Earth and verify the functionality of the instrument –rather than include arbitrary wave forms, we decided to use the opportunity as a public outreach event.” [More at link]
THEMIS Image of the Day, March 26, 2019. Today’s false-color VIS image is located in Elysium Planitia. The linear depressions at the top of the image are created by tectonic faults, where the center block of material has dropped downward between two parallel faults. Blue tones, like those at the bottom of the image, are indicative of basaltic sands.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
Explore more THEMIS Images of the Day by geological subject.
A new study reveals asteroid impacts on ancient Mars could have produced key ingredients for life if the Martian atmosphere was rich in hydrogen. An early hydrogen-rich atmosphere on Mars could also explain how the planet remained habitable after its atmosphere thinned. The study used data from NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars and was conducted by researchers on Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument team and international colleagues.
These key ingredients are nitrites (NO2) and nitrates (NO3), fixed forms of nitrogen that are important for the establishment and sustainability of life as we know it. Curiosity discovered them in soil and rock samples it took as it traversed within Gale Crater, the site of ancient lakes and groundwater systems on Mars.
To understand how fixed nitrogen may have been deposited in the crater, researchers needed to recreate the early Martian atmosphere here on Earth. The study, led by Dr. Rafael Navarro-González and his team of scientists at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, used a combination of theoretical models and experimental data to investigate the role hydrogen plays in altering nitrogen into nitrites and nitrates using energy from asteroid impacts. The paper was published in January in the Journal of Geophysical Researc: Planets.
In the lab, the group used infrared laser beam pulses to simulate the high-energy shockwaves created by asteroids slamming into the atmosphere. The pulses were focused into a flask containing mixtures of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases, representing the early Martian atmosphere. After the laser blasts, the resulting concoction was analyzed to determine the amount of nitrates formed. The results were surprising, to say the least… [More at links]
Sol 2357, March 24, 2019. On its drive to the east-northeast on this sol, Curiosity took snapshots of the ground passing beneath using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
The image combines three MAHLI frames. It reveals a patch of small pebbles appearing well-rounded and smooth — and all about the same size. (Click the image to enlarge it.)
