This image of a Martian rock illuminated by white-light LEDs is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by Curiosity.
The images were taken on Jan. 22, after dark on the 165th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars. This rock target in the “Yellowknife Bay” area of Mars’ Gale Crater is called “Sayunei.”
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (via NASA - MAHLI’s First Night Imaging of Martian Rock, White Lighting)
How cool is this? Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission have spotted two features shaped like “Pac-Man” on moons of Saturn. One was observed on the moon Mimas in 2010 and the latest on the moon Tethys.
(Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/SWRI)
The space shuttle Endeavour will go right past Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood as it makes its way to its permanent home at the California Space Center. Meantime, there’s a model shuttle holding its spot.
More photos of Endeavour’s journey: http://usat.ly/RlQuRv
(Photo by Frederic J. Brown, AFP/Getty Images)
Scientists at the controls of NASA’s Curiosity rover report that its first chemistry tests of a Martian rock revealed a surprise: The Mars rock looks a lot like volcanic ones found on Earth.
Womp.
Great image from NASA of the Blue Moon over Cincinnati on Friday, the day of Neil Armstrong’s memorial service there.
A Blue Moon is the rare second Full Moon in the same month.
Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA
Here it is: the first color image of Mars from the Curiosity rover.
Also: NASA releases low-res video of Mars rover descent
(Photo: NASA)
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover is expected to arrive on the red planet’s surface at 1:31 a.m. EDT Monday.
The forecast? Pink skies with a chance of water ice haze.
Curiosity will explore Gale Crater, which was created more than 3 billion years ago by a meteor. At the bottom of the crater is a 3-mile-high mountain — Mount Sharp — that the rover will comb for signs of life.
(Photo: NASA)
