Aeolis quadrangle

What were you doing on November 8, 2023? I couldn’t say for myself, but I can tell you what NASA’s Curiosity rover was doing: sitting still on its 4,002nd day on Mars, taking snapshots of the Martian surface.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerNow, mission team members at Jet Propulsion Laboratory have stitched together two series of frames from the rover’s front and rear Hazcams to create a unique video capturing time’s passage on the Red Planet.The Hazcams—short for Hazard-Avoidance Cameras—are used by rover drivers to…

Earlier this week, scientists announced that Perseverance found organic molecules on Mars. Not life itself—hardly—but another endorsement of the ancient habitat on Mars as having been suitable for life.Perseverance has been searching for biosignatures—that is, signs of ancient life on Mars—since it landed on the Red Planet in February 2021. But the search for that life began years before Perseverance even left Earth, with the labors of the Curiosity rover.Curiosity launched for Mars in 2011, a decade before the…

On February 18, 2021, a car-sized robot parachuted its way down to the surface of Mars to begin searching for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. From that day on, the landing site where NASA’s Perseverance rover plopped down became known as Octavia E. Butler, named after the prolific science fiction author behind many famous titles such as Parable of the Sower.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewEver since NASA began sending rovers to Mars, the space agency has had a…

The Perseverance rover mission on Mars is exploring a dried-up river delta that once fed into a large crater lake on the planet. Now, NASA scientists have found evidence of one such river, which was apparently deeper and faster-moving than previously discovered ancient waterways.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?Hundreds of images taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument were assembled into two mosaic images, which indicate to NASA scientists that at least one river flowing into Jezero Crater was turbid,…

The rock was cradled inside one of Perseverance’s six wheels. Image: NASAMars is a lonely place, and it just got a little lonelier for one rover. NASA’s Perseverance has parted ways with a lumpy stone that has been its companion for more than a year.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?Last spring, a photo of one of Perseverance’s wheels revealed a small rock along for the ride. A recently captured image, however, shows a lonely aluminum wheel without the stowaway that had been stuck there all these months. The…

A major software update to the Curiosity rover will allow the robot to drive faster on the Martian surface and reduce wear on its wheels, potentially boosting the mission’s lifespan.Why Tilda Swinton is Drawn to Certain CharactersThose are just two of some 180 software changes applied to Curiosity between April 3 and April 7. It’s the rover’s first significant software update since 2016.“The flight software is essential to our mission, so this is a big deal for our team,” said Kathya Zamora-Garcia, Curiosity’s project…

NASA’s Perseverance rover has spent its two years on Mars imaging the planet’s surface and collecting rock samples that will, should all go well, be brought to Earth in the early 2030s.The rover collected samples of Martian regolith (rocks and dust) as well as the planet’s atmosphere, which it stored in its sample cache. But it also collected 10 sample tubes, which it left sitting on the Martian surface as backups in case disaster strikes and the samples aboard Perseverance become inaccessible.Now, the rover has snapped…

This image was taken by Perseverance on Sol 466, or June 12, 2022 by Earth’s calendar. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUMy colleague noticed something strange in the latest batch of photos from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover: A roundish rock appears to be carefully balanced atop a jagged outcrop. How did that get there?The photo was taken in Mars’ Jezero Crater by Perseverance’s right Mastcam-Z on Sol 466, which corresponds to June 12 here on Earth. I emailed NASA to ask what the rock could be and whether there’s anything truly…