![]() ![]() This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. "We're still happy where we landed," said Gavin Mendeck of the NASA Johnson Space Center.Ĭopyright 2012 The Associated Press. Curiosity ended up 1 1/2 miles (2.41 kilometers) downrange from the bull's-eye target, probably because of tail winds and a late steering turn. The prime mission lasts two years.Ī preliminary reconstruction of the "seven minutes of terror" plunge through the Martian atmosphere revealed everything went as planned. It will be weeks before Curiosity can take its first drive, zap at boulders or dig up soil in search of the chemical building blocks of life. During the hiatus, stored data will continue to be downloaded. Over the weekend, it will get a software update, a process that will take four days. Discover the cosmos Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Since the feat, Curiosity has returned a flood of pictures including a 360-degree color view and a low-resolution video featuring the last minutes of its descent. Speeding at 100 mph (161 kph), the high-speed impact kicked up a plume of dust which showed up in Curiosity's field of view.Ĭuriosity was in the right place at the right time and facing the right direction, Sell said. After landing, it cut the cords and the rocket stage flew out of the way, crashing 2,000 feet (610 meters) from the landing site. In the final seconds, the rocket stage hovered as cables delicately lowered the rover to the ground. Its ultimate target is a mountain looming from the crater floor where mineral signatures of water have been spied.Ĭuriosity performed a novel, complex landing routine. The nuclear-powered rover landed in Gale Crater near the equator Sunday night to study whether environmental conditions could have favored microbes. It "was an amazing coincidence that we were able to catch this impact," said engineer Steve Sell of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission. Was it dirt on the camera lens or a spinning dust devil? It turned out Curiosity spotted the aftermath of its rocket-powered backpack crash-landing in the distance. The feature disappeared in a later photo. ![]() It’s the most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the M. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to shoot video of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, eclipsing the Sun. Scientists are using the car-sized robot to study the Gale Crater, an old meteor site on Mars!įor years scientists believed there was no chance of finding life on Mars, due to its thin atmosphere and freezing winter temperatures – which can be as cold as minus 130☌! But in September 2015 scientists announced they had found salt water on the planet’s surface, leading them to think there could be life on Mars – just probably not in the shape of a mouse!Ĭool, eh? What do you think, is it a mouse or a rock? Let us know by leaving a comment below.Seconds after the car-size rover parked its six wheels in an ancient crater, a tiny camera under the chassis snapped a picture revealing a smudge on the horizon. Perseverance Rover Sees Solar Eclipse on Mars April 20, 2022. The Curiosity Rover touched down on Mars on 6th August 2012 and has been on a special space mission to explore the red planet ever since. ![]() It resembles a very large mouse or jerboa in appearance.”īut hold on to your hats space lovers, because it looks as though the little critter might just be a figure of our imaginations, as many people believe the shadowy image to simply show a mouse-shaped rock. He wrote alongside the video: “A possible very large mouse or other rodent on Mars in Gale Crater – sitting on a ridge, plain as day. It is probably an optical illusion but seems to have big ears, nose and eyes. While there’s no official word from NASA about the Martian mouse, amateur astronomer Joe White posted the pictures on his YouTube channel, saying he thinks he’s spotted a mouse in the Curiosity Rover’s recent footage. ![]() NASA’s Curiosity Rover (a robot exploring the landscape on planet Mars), seems to have spotted something rather unusual among the usually uninhabited and rocky Martian landscape.Ī UFO you might think? A three-headed fish, even? Nope, the pictures show what seems to be a small, fluffy mouse – just hanging out on Mars. Scientists have long questioned whether there is life on Mars, and by the looks of these latest pictures, there very well might be… This mouse-shaped shadow was caught on camera by a NASA robot…Ĭheck it out NG Kids fans – it looks like we might have found a red planet rodent! ![]()
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