Category Archives: astronomy

astronomy

A View out the Side Window

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on Mars

The scene is toward the south, including a portion of Mount Sharp and a band of dark dunes in front of the mountain. It was taken on the 140th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars, shortly after Curiosity finished a 329.1-foot (100.3-meter) drive on that sol. The drive was twice as long as any previous sol's drive by Curiosity. When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver's side of cars sold in the USA. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The scene taken by the Mars Curiosity Rover’s hand lens imager is toward the south, including a portion of Mount Sharp and a band of dark dunes in front of the mountain. It was taken on the 140th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars, shortly after Curiosity finished a 329.1-foot (100.3-meter) drive on that sol. The drive was twice as long as any previous sol’s drive by Curiosity.
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver’s side of cars sold in the USA. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (Click to enlarge.)

The exploration of Mars continues with the Curiosity rover doing its thing now for almost a year. A couple of days ago it went on a lengthy Sunday drive, moving a whopping 100.3 meters (109.7 yards). That’s pretty fast, really, and was the rover’s longest drive to date.  And, along the way, the Mars Hand Lens Imager took a nice picture, almost from the viewpoint of the driver in a car, with the rest of us being the kids in the backseat as our folks drive us along to see the sights.

I like pictures such as this because they give all of us a sense of “place” on Mars. It’s not some strange alien landscape. Well, it is, but it’s a familiar alien landscape. We’ve been looking at Mars in high-resolution in situ images for years now, and it’s getting to feel almost like home. Just without the water, trees, roads, and other stuff we see as we drive along highways here on Earth.

You could imagine stopping the trip, getting out of the car and picking up some of those rocks in the foreground. Or, running over to the hillside that doesn’t look like it’s too far away, and checking out the strange layers of rock.  Or, maybe turning around and heading straight up the side of that hill, called Mt. Sharp.

This possibility of exploration by “hand” is what interests me about Mars. It looks so approachable. So study-able. So fascinating. And yet, it’s so far away.  And, we’re not going there any time soon. The first human missions to Mars are probably at least a decade or more away.  So, we content ourselves with what is really almost like a “webcam” study of Mars, provided by our long-working robotic explorers such as Curiosity and Opportunity.

Want to learn more about Curiosity’s Sunday drive? Check out the news release and enlarged image for more details. I guarantee it’ll whet your appetite for more things Mars.

 

 

astronomy

Sunset Planets

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Late July Planetary Sights

Venus graces the post-sunset sky in the west this week. As it gets darker, look for Saturn low in the south-southwest.
Venus graces the post-sunset sky in the west this week. As it gets darker, look for Saturn low in the south-southwest. Click for a slightly larger view.

It’s been a while since I’ve pointed out any sky sights to my readers, so here’s a quickie look at the post-sunset skies for the last week of July. For folks in the northern hemisphere, this is about how the sky looks just after sunset, when things are starting to get a bit dark. First, you’ll likely see a bright “star” low in the west. It’s not a star, it’s the planet Venus.

Back when I was working at the planetarium on campus during my grad school years, we would often get phone calls from members of the public about Venus. The most memorable one came from a person who said she’d been watching it for hours and it was moving slowly, so was it a UFO?  I guess she didn’t remember that as Earth turns, objects in the sky will eventually set in the west. Such is the case for Venus–it sinks below the horizon a while after sunset, giving us a pretty view of this cloud-covered planet.

As it gets darker, you should also be able to spot Saturn, not far from the star Spica (in Leo the Lion), headed for its rendezvous with the horizon shortly after midnight. If you have binoculars or a telescope, check out Saturn’s rings. Even at low magnification, they’re enough to get a “wow” out of you upon first sight.

Saturn is one of my favorite planets, right after Mars. I like Mars because it’s likely that humans will get to go there someday. Saturn just enchants me because of those rings. When I was a kid, those rings just screamed “alien world” at me!  Now, of course, we know a LOT about Saturn, and it has turned out to be a fascinating place in its own right. To read more about Saturn, check out the Cassini Mission web pages.  Mars info is available here.

Whatever you do this last week and a half of July, make sure it includes stepping outside after sunset and checking out the sky!