Latest news with #MarsRover
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Perseverance Rover Strikes A Selfie With Mars Dust Devil
NASA's Perseverance took this selfie on May 10 along the rim of the Jezero crater. Unbothered. In its lane. Focused. Dusty. Fabulous. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took some time away from its science work to snap a superb selfie from its perch on the rim of the Jezero Crater. The rover wasn't alone. A peppy dust devil danced in the background. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab shared two versions of the rover selfie on May 21. The portraits show the rover parked on a rocky hill. In one shot, the rover 'looks' at the camera with its head-like mast. In the other, it looks toward the ground where a small hole marks a spot where the rover drilled for a rock sample. The photobombing dust devil can be seen in the distance as a light-colored puff near the middle of the image. 'The well-illuminated scene and relatively clear atmosphere allowed us to capture a dust devil located 3 miles to the north in Neretva Vallis,' said Perseverance imaging lead Justin Maki in a statement. The small dark hole in the rock in front of the rover is the borehole made when Perseverance ... More collected its latest sample. The small puff of dust left of center and below the horizon line is a dust devil. NASA shared an annotated version of the image pointing out the dust devil, the sample hole, an American flag on the rover and the rover's tracks behind it. Dust devils are common on Mars. NASA's rovers keep an eye out for dust devil activity. Perseverance even captured extraordinary footage of a larger dust devil consuming a smaller one in January. The rover snapped the selfie on May 10 to celebrate its 1,500th sol on the red planet. A sol is a Martian day. It works out to about 24 hours and 39 minutes, so a sol is slightly longer than an Earth day. This is Perseverance's fifth selfie since it arrived on Mars in early 2021. The rover landed inside the Jezero Crater and has since worked its way up to the crater rim. It's spent about five months exploring an area nicknamed Witch Hazel Hill. The region has delivered some geological surprises, like these 'shocking spherules' Perseverance investigated in March. Taking a selfie on Mars is no easy feat. Perseverance used its Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering camera to snap 59 images that could be stitched together into the full selfie. WATSON is located at the end of the rover's robotic arm. WATSON took three more snaps for the shot where Percy looked down toward the ground. The Perseverance team had to plan out each shot. 'That means we had to make 62 precision movements of the robotic arm,' said Perseverance imaging scientist Megan Wu. 'The whole process takes about an hour, but it's worth it. Having the dust devil in the background makes it a classic. This is a great shot.' Selfies aren't just for fun. The rover team uses them to assess the rover and monitor how much dust has gathered on the vehicle and its instruments. Mars is notoriously dusty. NASA's Opportunity rover and InSight lander succumbed to dust-covered solar panels. Unlike its dearly departed helicopter companion Ingenuity, Perseverance doesn't rely on solar. It's essentially powered by a nuclear battery. Perseverance received a thumbs-up health report from its team. 'After 1,500 sols, we may be a bit dusty, but our beauty is more than skin deep,' said Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager. Thompson said the rover has all the power it needs, that all systems are in the green and that Perseverance is set to 'feed scientific discoveries for years to come.' That's worth a celebratory Mars selfie.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Cusat showcases student innovations at govt expo
Kochi: At the Ente Keralam exhibition and trade fair, being held at Marine Drive ground as part of Kerala govt's fourth anniversary celebrations, the stall set up by Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) is drawing considerable attention for its display of innovation and cutting-edge research. The stall highlights several internationally acclaimed projects developed by Cusat engineering students. These include a Mars Rover that earned global recognition at European Rover Challenge in Poland, a racing car developed by students which won Formula Bharat Championship and a multi-purpose off-road vehicle designed for rescue operations. Another noteworthy innovation is a machine capable of planting multiple varieties of vegetable saplings simultaneously — India's first fully automated transplanter of its kind. The stall also offers a virtual reality (VR) journey simulating a walk with penguins in Antarctica. The immersive visuals of snow-covered landscapes, the northern lights and snowfall have captivated audiences. This VR experience is presented by Cusat-NCPOR Centre for Polar Science. Cusat's National Centre for Aquatic Animal Health (NCAAH) researchers are also showcasing bacterial products designed to enhance aquatic health, including supplements for fish and solutions to eliminate harmful chemicals from aquatic environments. Adding to the tech offerings, School of Legal Studies has introduced Legal GPT, an AI-powered software capable of answering legal queries. Cusat's IT engineering students developed a multilingual chatbot that provides instant responses to questions about the university in both Malayalam and English. The exhibition continues until Friday.
BreakingNews.ie
21-05-2025
- Science
- BreakingNews.ie
Nasa's Mars Perseverance snaps a selfie as a Martian dust devil blows by
The latest selfie by Nasa's Perseverance rover ont Mars has captured an unexpected guest: a Martian dust devil. Resembling a small pale puff, the twirling dust devil popped up three miles behind the rover during this month's photo shoot. Advertisement Released on Wednesday, the selfie is a composite of 59 images taken by the camera on the end of the rover's robotic arm, according to Nasa. It took an hour to perform all the arm movements necessary to gather the images, 'but it's worth it', said Megan Wu, an imaging scientist from Malin Space Science Systems, which built the camera. 'Having the dust devil in the background makes it a classic,' Ms Wu said in a statement. Did you know that I use self-driving autonomy on Mars? My AutoNav system helps me scan for hazards and chart a safe course in real time based on parameters from my team back home. This was built on decades of work, shaped by lessons from rovers that came before me. — NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) May 2, 2025 The picture — which also shows the rover's latest sample borehole on the surface — marks 1,500 sols or Martian days for Perseverance. That is equivalent to 1,541 days on Earth. Advertisement Perseverance is covered with red dust, the result of drilling into dozens of rocks. Launched in 2020, it is collecting samples for eventual return to Earth from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta that could hold clues of any past microbial life.
Time Out
14-05-2025
- Science
- Time Out
Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?
The Natural History Museum is capable of turning in some pretty giddy exhibitions: notably, the recent-ish Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature revolved around a series of fictional magical animals invented by JK Rowling. Fair warning, though: the venerable museum's first ever space-based exhibition is pretty sober stuff, that steadfastly refuses to sensationalise its subject. If you want to know what an alien invasion might look like or how realistic Star Wars is then there isn't a lot for you in Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? But if you're interested in the actual question 'is there life out there and how would we detect it?' then this is the exhibition for you, made with the usual sophistication and care that defines the NHM's temporary exhibits (which are always considerably less faded and more contemporary than its permanent collections). The entire exhibition is dimly lit, with soothing background music playing everywhere – the vibe is serene spaciousness, graceful emptiness and cosmic stillness. We begin on Earth, with the first galleries examining the extraterrestrial origins of life here. Nobody can exactly say how life on Earth first came to be, but there's little doubt that its building blocks – carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and water – were brought to us by asteroids, of which there are several bits here, some of which you can even touch. The carefully curated exhibition instils an appropriate amount of awe Correctly contextualised, it's hard not to feel awe at an object that's 4.6 billion years old and predates our planet, or a series of colourful patterned layers some 3.5 billion years old, that constitute the evidence of some of the first microbial life to exist here. Of course, they all look and feel like rocks, but the carefully curated exhibition instils an appropriate amount of awe. On to Mars, and the lion's share of the fun interactive stuff. There is a giant panorama of the Red Planet that you can slap your hand on to see as a watery world some four billion years ago – it's really quite startling. As with many of the rooms, you can take a sniff of what it might smell like there (mmm… ferrous..?). And there's also an interactive Mars Rover game where you can control a rover as it attempts to harvest useful rock samples (I say 'attempt' – there is a time limit and I failed). Later the exhibition details various missions to explore asteroids, and determine – from a great distance – what planets may be out there, whether they might be capable of supporting life, and what other means there might be of detecting an alien civilisation: you've heard of SETI, but have you heard of LaserSETI? Of course, at some point you have to give the people what they want, and the last room does consist of realistic CGI animations of imaginary alien lifeforms. It is a very nice and appreciated touch, and dare I say a slightly cathartic moment, although none of the hypothetical beasties constitute intelligent life and are basically cool variants on things you might find near oceanic vents on our planet. Lest I sound underwhelmed by Space, let me state that I absolutely wasn't, though I was quite glad I didn't take my primary school aged kids, who I think would probably have hankered for something more sci-fi orientated. This is an elegant and illuminating exhibition, as notable for its clear breakdown of the extraterrestrial origins of life on our planet as it is for its measured contemplation of the likelihood of us finding it.
The Sun
10-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
I know NASA is hiding evidence of aliens on Mars – I have photographic proof and here's why they're keeping it secret
NASA has already found signs of alien life on Mars but is still keeping it secret, a rogue scientist claims. Barry DiGregorio, 71, believes rovers from the space agency captured snaps of alien fossils on two different occasions. 6 6 6 In 2018, Nasa 's Curiosity rover took images of what it said likely show crystal growth. But DiGregorio accused Nasa of failing to investigate properly and spent two years researching the images himself. The author, who wrote Discovery on Vera Rubin Ridge, Trace Fossils on Mars, then concluded they were 'biogenic' - meaning they were produced by living organisms. He theorised Nasa was staying tight-lipped to boost interest in its hopes of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. DeGregorio, an honorary research fellow at Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, now claims Nasa found yet more evidence of alien life on Mars. He believes images snapped by the Perseverance rover in 2020 show signs of 'worm-like' aliens who roamed its historic oceans. The astrobiologist told The Sun: 'I watched the rover coming down right on its landing site. 'You could see the engines just brushing all the dust aside for the rocks to become apparent, and the very first images it took were these rocks that had holes in them. 'Then after China's Zhurong rover mission, they published a paper where they said all the rocks that they found were of sedimentary origin, and that they formed in In water.' DiGregorio then saw a striking resemblance to the trace fossils he'd grown up studying in Lake Ontario, on the border of Canada and the US. Meet Sunbird, Britain's secret space nuke that could help us colonise Mars… or even take trips to the edge of the galaxy He added: 'It made an intriguing hypothesis because I had always been fascinated by the trace fossils around Lake Ontario, I grew up around that area. 'We didn't have dinosaur fossils, but what we did have was lots of marine fossils dating back to the Ordovician era and even before. 'The sandstones that I found on the shores of Lake Ontario I felt were a good analogy to what we were seeing on Mars. 'Now we know that those rocks there are marine sedimentary rocks, it solidifies it a bit.' And DiGregorio was so gobsmacked by the discovery he thought Nasa was preparing an announcement. But instead, he claims the rover failed to properly examine the rocks. He continued: 'So the fact that the Perseverance rover landed right on top of similar rocks was almost too much to bear. 'When I saw those rocks all over the place, I'm going, 'what? Oh my God'. 6 6 'I thought, for sure, Nasa is going to make a big announcement. 'And instead, what they did was they headed towards the opposite direction. So they didn't really analyse those rocks at all.' DiGregorio doesn't believe the images point to an alien civilisation, the kind that might be drawn up in a sci-fi film. But he does believe they were jellyfish-type figures that could move around. He added: 'The holes in the rocks tell me the story that bigger organisms were there, but they were essentially marine organisms. 'So wormy things, maybe fish, possibly jellyfish, really ancient type things that moved around. 'I'm thinking wormy-type things that were around during the Ediacaran period. 'Then the climate on Mars changed and the atmosphere changed. 'The water probably got absorbed into the soil and a lot of it left through the atmosphere due to the solar wind.' Mars facts Here's what you need to know about the red planet... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun It is named after the Roman god of war The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth, but due to the difference in gravity, you could jump three times higher there than you can here. Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest Mars is considered the second most habitable planet after Earth. It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun The planet has a diameter of 4,212 miles, and has an average distance from Earth of 140 million miles Martian temperatures can vary wildly, reaching as high as 70F/20C or as low as -225F/-153C Nasa said after the Perseverance mission that the findings couldn't be fully analysed because sending the appropriate equipment was too complicated. But the agency is planning a sample return mission based on its findings, and did not rule out the possibility of the Perseverance photos pointing to signs of alien life. Yet asked why Nasa would continue to conceal everything it knows about the images, DiGregorio theorised it was because of the potential dangers to astronauts. Mars has an incredibly hostile environment compared to Earth. It fluctuates between extreme temperatures, and has a surface level radiation that would be incredibly harmful to humans. DiGregorio added: 'I think that they don't want to say anything about it because of the fact they are sending humans there. 'If you have microbes on Mars, and they say we've discovered life on Mars, it could be different to Earth life and could be toxic or dangerous to human astronauts. That's what I think it is.' According to Nasa's website, it hopes they will send humans to Mars in the 2030s. A Nasa spokesman, responding to DiGregorio's claims, told The Sun one of the agency's goals is to "understand whether Mars has, or ever has had life, and any credible evidence of potential past life." They insisted the agency will "continue to investigate the best of our ability". The spokesman added: "During its exploration of the Martian surface, Perseverance has encountered many interesting rock features, and the science team has determined which rocks are worth further investigation, and even sampling, based on all of the available data. "To date, NASA has yet to find any credible evidence of extraterrestrial life. "Our exploration of Mars also has to led to many images that evoke our natural curiosity and creativity of interpretation. 6 "Our science teams spend many hours debating what may have formed these visual features, while bringing to bear all of the additional information afforded by our incredibly outfitted rovers and orbiters. "While the science community continues to theorise these images point to possible crystal growth, Nasa's science missions are working together with a goal to find unmistakable signs of life beyond Earth." It comes after Nasa admitted a mysterious hole on Mars could be harbouring alien life in an extensive network of underground tunnels, From orbit, scientists have captured a deep pit on the Red Planet that looks like it leads underground. The image, titled "An unusual hole in Mars," shows a pockmarked planet that could be hiding tons of subterranean pockets. "There are numerous holes pictured in this Swiss cheese-like landscape, with all-but-one of them showing a dusty, dark, Martian terrain beneath evaporating, light, carbon dioxide ice," Nasa wrote. "The most unusual hole is on the upper right, spans about 100 meters, and seems to punch through to a lower level." It's unclear what caused the hole. Though scientists assume the circular crater that surrounds it suggests it was created by a meteor impact. "Holes such as this are of particular interest because they might be portals to lower levels that extend into expansive underground caves," Nasa explained. "If so, these naturally occurring tunnels are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. "These pits are therefore also prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers." How long does it take to get to Mars? It's not that short of a trip... There's an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time It's also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that's 9,800 times the distance between London and New York That's really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.
