NASA scientists have discovered that the density of the Martian crust is lower than expected, and this could have major implications for understanding the internal structure of the planet itself and its evolution… This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Finally a nice article that tries to sensitize the public opinion on the importance to avoid any biological contamination of the planet Mars by bacteria and viruses that would be inevitably imported by a possible expedition with human crew!Obviously Robert Zubrin has immediately thundered against this article calling it “idiotic” (see https://twitter.com/robert_zubrin/status/990728572716269568) :“Another idiotic article saying we should keep humans off Mars to protect science.… Read More »Leave Mars to the robots!
Between 13:29:39 UTC and 13:30:54 UTC Opportunity’s Pancam takes three images with narrow band filters in the three basic colors, from which it was possible to derive this beautiful true color image of the Martian soil and rocks.In this case, the original images (especially in the green and blue) have a high level of “noise” and so I applied a median filter to all three… Read More »Opportunity Sol 5070, April 29, 2018
Very few times have I read an article so rich in detail and so well done that it captured my attention in this way!In this article we discuss all the ways in which liquid water can form on Mars and how it can maintain the liquid state for long periods with or without added salts.But not only that, it also addresses in a very serious… Read More »Why the polar regions of Mars are of extreme interest to astrobiology and why we have not yet been able to explore them
Reached the final circular orbit at 400 km altitude, begins the scientific phase of the ExoMars mission…Now the dances begin! 😀 😉 This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Between 08:38:50 UTC and 08:40:23 UTC Opportunity’s Pancam takes three images with narrowband filters in the three basic colors, from which it was possible to derive this extraordinary true-color image of the furrow created by one of Opportunity’s wheels.In this case, the original images (especially in green and blue) have a high level of “noise” and so I applied a median filter to all three… Read More »Opportunity Sol 5062, April 21, 2018
At 20:00:55 UTC, 11:46:10 local daylight time, Mastcam Right captures this rock of great interest.As usual, the original image has been subjected to white balance and a slight increase in color saturation and contrast.In the rock in the foreground, but not only, there are layers and textures that are anything but regular, which would require a very thorough analysis.Even, according to Luigi Bignami (see post… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2028, April 21, 2018
This photograph recently arrived on Earth (within the last few hours) and it’s a rock photographed by Curiosity in the Gale crater. I don’t want to exaggerate, but it is really amazing. If it were a terrestrial rock I would say it is rich in “fossils”. We are on Mars and therefore I do not think they are fossils the structures that you see, but… Read More »Luigi Bignami writes “REALLY PARTICULAR
At 00:26:25 UTC, 16:04:35 local solar time, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) imaged this peculiar formation of rocks of various shapes.The large central rock was first cleaned with the rotary abrasion tool and then hit in at least nine places with the laser for spectroscopic analysis.The image was taken from a distance of 26.4 cm with a resolution of 101.3 microns per pixel.To improve… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2029, April 22, 2018.
The great astrophotographer Damian Peach gives us another beautiful image of Mars taken through the telescope.From the left, we can see the color image followed by the b/w image in red, green and blue.In the image taken with the blue filter is easier to see the many cloud formations visible a bit ‘everywhere.Clearly visible also Solis Lacus, as well as the Valle Marineris in the… Read More »Mars imaged in good visibility conditions on April 17