Then, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the estimated impact site to confirm the location.
Not just red rocks and craters we saw in the popular science fiction film 'The Martian' starring Matt Damon, Mars has several volcanic rocks composed of large grains of olivine -- the muddier less-gemlike version of peridot that tints Hawaii's beaches dark green, NASA's rover Perseverance has discovered.
The conjunction was brightest on Friday morning but will remain visible until Monday from most parts of the world.
The quake estimated to be of magnitude 5 occurred on May 4, the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, NASA said in a statement.
People can hear the "puff, whir, zap" of the rover's tools, the rover's mechanical whine and click in a light Martian wind; the whir of rotors on Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter and the crackling strike of a rock-zapping laser.
"The flower-like rock, which has been named the Blackthorn Salt, is a diagenetic feature, or one made from minerals that precipitated from ancient water that had previously been mixed with Martian rock," Abigail Fraeman, a planetary scientist and deputy project scientist for the Curiosity rover, was quoted as saying to Live Science.
The data suggested the presence of a shallow sedimentary layer sandwiched between lava flows beneath the planet's surface.
Mars has no liquid water on its surface may be its just too small to hold onto large amounts of water.
Washington: NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover that went into hibernation last June after a massive dust storm blocked sunlight from reaching its solar panels to generate power, might have “died”, fear scientists. Opportunity’s last communication with Earth was received June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm blanketed the solar-powered rover’s location on the western rim […]
Washington: Barely two weeks after touching down on Mars, NASA’s InSight lander has taken its first selfie using the spacecraft’s robotic arm, the US space agency has said. InSight landed safely at Elysium Planitia on Mars on November 26, kicking off a two-year mission to explore the deep interior of the Red Planet. On December […]
Washington: After the historic InSight touchdown on Mars, NASA is now set to focus on Moon mission by announcing new partnerships with American companies, the US space agency said. Working with US companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and Mars, NASA said in a statement […]
Washington: US-based space agency NASA’s Mars InSight lander, due to arrive on the Red planet’s surface on Monday night, may teach us more about Earth. It is going to use seismometers to study the planet’s interior so we can learn more about how it formed and why it’s so different from Earth, BBC reported on […]
Paris: The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express has imaged a part of the Martian landscape, a region at the boundary of the northern and southern hemisphere which is rocky and fragmented, that once formed the Red Planet’s flood plains. The region, a furrowed, rock-filled escarpment known as Nili Fossae sits at the boundary of […]
Washington: NASA’s InSight spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on November 26, scientists monitoring the health and trajectory of the lander have said. InSight will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 19,800 kilometres per hour (kph) and slow down to eight kph — about […]