Astrogeology Science Center
News
Publication Reveals New Insights into Mysterious Slope Streaks on Mars
You won’t want to miss out on Geomorphological evidence for a dry dust avalanche origin of slope streaks on Mars!
Bound to Make an Impact: Astro Employee Recognized for Photo Submission
Marc Hunter of the Astrogeology Science Center has been recognized for a photo of a Valles Marineras Tharsis color topographic map chosen to be included in the Plenary Session at the upcoming July 2020 Esri Federal GIS Conference.
Sols 2795-2796: Approaching Bloodstone Hill
A few months ago, Curiosity drove up on top of the Greenheugh pediment (see this blog post: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/8624/sols-2696-2698-made-it/) to investigate the capping unit that is visible on top. After Curiosity drove off the pediment, the rover...
Sols 2792-2794: Contact science on the way to “Bloodstone Hill”
Curiosity is making good progress on the way to “Bloodstone Hill,” an interesting bright outcrop visible on the left side of the above Navcam image. The plan is to drive around the large sand patch and then make our way up to the hill, hopefully sometime next weekend. But before we get to “Bloodstone Hill,” there’s a lot of great science to be done this weekend!
A new song inspires memory of the man buried on the Moon
Millions of people are listening to a song called “Shoemaker” by a Finnish music group called 'Nightwish', written as a tribute to Dr. Eugene Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997) , founder of Astrogeology Science Center.
Sol 2781-2782: Sulfates or Bust
Today’s plan marks the start of our more than 1.5 km traverse to the next major unit of Mt. Sharp, the “sulfate-bearing” unit. During this traverse the focus will be on driving as far as we can each sol, but we’ll still be doing plenty of science along the way.
May’s Must-Read Journal Article: An ancient lake on Mars?
As the Curiosity rover explores the Martian climate and geology of Mars, scientists are hoping to find definitive evidence that life once existed there by studying its environment. When new data are acquired and studied, scientists make known their findings to other scientists, as well as to the public and in different venues.
Sol 2763-2764: SAM is Getting Ready
There was a hiccup with SAM in Monday’s plan preventing it from running the “preconditioning” steps to get ready for sample analysis, but after studying the issue the SAM team says that everything looks ok.
‘Cereously’: An Ice Shell of Ceres keeps fiery debates burning
In March 2015, researchers were excited as they waited for details about the dwarf planet Ceres from NASA’s Dawn mission. Further knowledge of the structure, surface, and history of Ceres were long-awaited and in acquisition. Dawn's revelation of the composition of Ceres’ 40-km-thick crust is debated among researchers despite the wealth of data collected.
Astrogeology Field Notes: March
Astrogeology Field Notes for March. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill
Sols 2740-2741: Making the most of this stop
The plan for Sol 2740 and 2741 is focused on diagnosing the issue with MAHLI, but while we are sitting in one place, we will also collect plenty of remote sensing data of the area around the rover.
Sizzling News: Astrogeology releases a new map of the Moon
The USGS Astrogeology Science Center (ASC), in collaboration with NASA and the Lunar and Planetary Institute, has released a new definitive geologic map of the Moon!