Latest news with #MAHLI
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Curiosity Mars Rover Investigates ‘Polygon Heaven'
NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this view of polygon-patterned bedrock on May 4. Mars is home to a lot of odd-shaped rocks that can look pretty random. Patterns, however, can catch scientists' eyes. That's the case with a section of polygon-patterned rocks spotted by NASA's Curiosity rover. The geometric cracks are a bit of a mystery, but the rover is looking into it. Current-day Mars comes across as an unpleasant place to live. It can reach painfully frigid temperatures and the surface is dry. That wasn't always the case. Mars was once a more watery place. The planet's history of water may play into the polygons. 'While the origin of these shapes isn't clear, they're another clue into how and when Mars lost its water,' the Curiosity team said on X on May 6. The Curiosity team shared a close-up color view of the polygon patterns snapped by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, one of the rover's many cameras. MAHLI is located at the end of the rover's robotic arm and helps the rover get into the personal space of Mars rocks and geologic features. The view shows a brown rock with distinctive angles. The Curiosity rovers MAHLI camera snapped a close color view of the polygon-patterned bedrock. There are several possible explanations for the polygonal cracks. Planetary geologist Catherine O'Connell-Cooper of the University of New Brunswick offered up a couple of ideas in a rover mission update on May 8. The cracks might have formed as Mars dried out billions of years ago. The shapes could also have formed later as groundwater moved through the bedrock. The mission update declared the area 'polygon heaven.' The polygon patterns resemble shapes seen in mud when it dries out on Earth. It will take more investigation before scientists can dial in the most likely origin for the distinctive patterns on Mars. 'Spending time in this area will help us to tease out their origin by sampling as much of the diversity as we can, from regular bedrock to the stranger textured targets,' wrote O'Connell-Cooper. The team will compare data from the polygonal features with data from unpatterned bedrock. Curiosity arrived on Mars in 2012, making it NASA's oldest functioning rover on the planet. It's traveled over 21 miles as it scales the slopes of Mount Sharp—the massive central mountain inside the Gale Crater. The rover's primary mission has been to understand if Mars might have been habitable for microbial life long ago. Both Curiosity and its newer sibling rover Perseverance have a similar aim: to help us understand if there is or ever was life beyond Earth. Curiosity has witnessed quite a few oddball formations in its time on the red planet. It spotted a rock that resembled the pages of a book and photographed a set of rocks with 'dragon scale' patterns. The rover ran over and broke open a stunning rock full of yellow sulfur crystals last year. The polygon-patterned rocks are the latest wonders to come under scrutiny from Curiosity and its team of human researchers back on Earth. NASA's posts on Curiosity's social media outlets are written as though coming directly from the rover itself. The rover had one more thing to say about studying the polygon patterns: 'Science rocks—literally.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Nasa rover spots strange Martian rock that looks like ‘chocolate cake'
Nasa's Curiosity rover has spotted a strange rock formation on Mars that looks like a multilayered chocolate cake. The rover team faced a technical challenge to find a safe area on the Red Planet to deploy the space vehicle's APXS spectrometer and MAHLI camera instruments. They eventually managed to place the APXS equipment on top of a prominent rock to study its target Martian area, including layered rocks named 'Hale Telescope' after the famous astronomical landmark in San Diego, California. The rover imaged and conducted analyses of another target a little further from the Hale Telescope area called 'Fan Palm'. In all, the Curiosity rover completed a drive of some 23 meters in preparation for the study plan lasting three Martian days. Curiosity now has its instruments as well as the APXS spectrometer set on the 'cakey target', planetary scientist Scott Van Bommel from Washington University said in a Nasa blog post. 'Perhaps it was because of Easter last weekend, perhaps I needed an early lunch,' Dr VanBommel commented, 'whatever the cause, I could not shake the visual parallels between the rocks in our workspace as captured in this blog's image and a many-layered cake such as a Prinzregententorte.' The weathering patterns on the rock formation make it look like a 'layered cake that little fingers have picked the icing off,' researchers say. The spacecraft has undergone a new AI software upgrade, giving it greater autonomy to choose its next target, Nasa noted. An upgraded version of the Curiosity's AEGIS instrument would enable the rover to autonomously determine the target and analyse it with its chemical analysis equipment. The rover's encounter with the strange rock formation occurred just days after it was captured driving across the Red Planet for the first time from orbit. An image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed Curiosity as a dark speck at the front of a trail of rover tracks about 320m long. Making tracks: From its vantage point in space, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter again captured the @MarsCuriosity rover, this time in mid-drive. The combination of eyes in the sky and wheels on the ground has helped us reveal the planet in new ways. — NASA Mars (@NASAMars) April 24, 2025 Since its landing at the Martian Gale Crater in August 2012, Curiosity has uncovered many details about the Red Planet's ancient habitability, helping find if it ever had the conditions to support microbial life. Its mobile science lab analyses rocks, soil and the Martian atmosphere, looking for chemical signatures of life. It has made several landmark discoveries, including evidence of ancient riverbeds, organic molecules, and past habitable environments. The rover has also helped determine the current Martian climate and radiation levels which could help future astronauts prepare for exploration.
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The Independent
28-04-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Nasa rover spots strange Martian rock that looks like ‘chocolate cake'
Nasa 's Curiosity rover has spotted a strange rock formation on Mars that looks like a multilayered chocolate cake. The rover team faced a technical challenge to find a safe area on the Red Planet to deploy the space vehicle's APXS spectrometer and MAHLI camera instruments. They eventually managed to place the APXS equipment on top of a prominent rock to study its target Martian area, including layered rocks named 'Hale Telescope' after the famous astronomical landmark in San Diego, California. The rover imaged and conducted analyses of another target a little further from the Hale Telescope area called 'Fan Palm'. In all, the Curiosity rover completed a drive of some 23 meters in preparation for the study plan lasting three Martian days. Curiosity now has its instruments as well as the APXS spectrometer set on the 'cakey target', planetary scientist Scott Van Bommel from Washington University said in a Nasa blog post. 'Perhaps it was because of Easter last weekend, perhaps I needed an early lunch,' Dr VanBommel commented, 'whatever the cause, I could not shake the visual parallels between the rocks in our workspace as captured in this blog's image and a many-layered cake such as a Prinzregententorte.' The weathering patterns on the rock formation make it look like a 'layered cake that little fingers have picked the icing off,' researchers say. The spacecraft has undergone a new AI software upgrade, giving it greater autonomy to choose its next target, Nasa noted. An upgraded version of the Curiosity's AEGIS instrument would enable the rover to autonomously determine the target and analyse it with its chemical analysis equipment. The rover's encounter with the strange rock formation occurred just days after it was captured driving across the Red Planet for the first time from orbit. An image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed Curiosity as a dark speck at the front of a trail of rover tracks about 320m long. Since its landing at the Martian Gale Crater in August 2012, Curiosity has uncovered many details about the Red Planet's ancient habitability, helping find if it ever had the conditions to support microbial life. Its mobile science lab analyses rocks, soil and the Martian atmosphere, looking for chemical signatures of life. It has made several landmark discoveries, including evidence of ancient riverbeds, organic molecules, and past habitable environments. The rover has also helped determine the current Martian climate and radiation levels which could help future astronauts prepare for exploration.
