Martian life in hole? Missile silo?

Martian life in hole? Missile silo?

What created this unusual hole in Mars? The hole was discovered by chance in 2011 on images of the dusty slopes of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars.   The hole appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on […]

Curiosity’s road trip on Mars

Curiosity’s road trip on Mars

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION /  NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS; Digital processing: Damia Bouic] Landing in mid-2012, the Curiosity rover is searching for clues of whether life could ever have existed on the red planet [and has found] evidence for an ancient (but now dried) freshwater lake…. To continue its investigation, the car-sized rover is […]

Meanwhile, out of Curiosity, from Mars

Meanwhile, out of Curiosity, from Mars

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION  /  NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, MAHLI] What’s in this smooth soil on Mars? In late October, NASA’s robotic Curiosity rover stopped near a place dubbed Rocknest as it continues to explore Gale Crater on Mars. Rocknest is the group of stones seen near the top left of the above image […]

Curiosity’s road trip to Glenelg, Mars

Curiosity’s road trip to Glenelg, Mars

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] Curiosity is on the move across Mars — but where is it going? The car-sized rover’s path after 29 Martian days on the surface is shown on the above map. Curiosity is still almost 300 meters from its first major destination, though, a meeting of different types of terrain […]

Curiosity eyes Mt. Sharp from a crater on Mars, and prepares to go there

Curiosity eyes Mt. Sharp from a crater on Mars, and prepares to go there

The light peak is Mt. Sharp — an eventual destination of the Curiosity rover. … Curiosity’s is already on the move crossing the intermediate gravel field toward an interesting terrain feature named Glenelg. Curiosity has also already started analyzing its surroundings by zapping a nearby rock with its laser to analyze the chemical composition of […]