Posts: 5502 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
posted 08-24-2021 09:07 PM
The Perseverance rover captured footage of one of the two Martian moons shining in the planet's skies. The 17-second time-lapse was posted on the rover's Twitter account on Friday (Aug. 20).
Sky watching is fun no matter where you are. I took this short time lapse movie to watch for clouds, and caught something else: look closely and you'll see Deimos, one of two moons of Mars.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 09-05-2021 10:04 AM
From the Perseverance rover's Twitter account:
I've got it! With better lighting down the sample tube, you can see the rock core I collected is still in there. Up next, I'll process this sample and seal the tube.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 09-06-2021 07:07 PM
From the Perseverance rover's Twitter account:
It's official: I've now captured, sealed, and stored the first core sample ever drilled on another planet, in a quest to return samples to Earth. It's the first in a one-of-a-kind Martian rock collection.
SpaceAholic Member
Posts: 5502 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
posted 09-10-2021 04:35 PM
The first two rock samples examined by NASA's Mars rover Perseverance give scientists a firm belief that water inundated Jezero Crater for a sustained period of time, the agency announced Friday.
"We determined salt granules in the rock indicate it was exposed to water," Julia Goreva, a NASA scientist for the rover program, said in a news conference from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The rocks, drilled Monday and Wednesday, came from an igneous or volcanic rock. The agency previously knew that water once filled the crater, but not for how long.
The salt deposits mean NASA can now rule out a sudden "flash in the pan" water event, the agency said in a news release.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-16-2021 12:44 PM
From the Perseverance rover's Twitter account:
Another little piece of Mars to carry with me.
My latest sample is from a rock loaded with the greenish mineral olivine, and there are several ideas among my science team about how it got there. Hypotheses are flying! Science rules.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-20-2022 12:38 PM
The Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to shoot video of Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, eclipsing the Sun.
It's the most zoomed-in, highest frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3877 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 04-20-2022 03:18 PM
Impressive! And it helps to refine the actual shape of Phobos, possibly allowing an improvement of the density estimate.
Headshot Member
Posts: 1426 From: Vancouver, WA, USA Registered: Feb 2012
posted 04-20-2022 06:56 PM
Maybe sometime in the future Percy could record a Transit of Earth across the face of the sun.
Although I suspect that our planet's angular diameter might appear to be too small, from Mars, to be recorded.
SpaceAholic Member
Posts: 5502 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-20-2022 07:57 PM
Sunspot activity captured on the solar disk is just as impressive.
Headshot Member
Posts: 1426 From: Vancouver, WA, USA Registered: Feb 2012
posted 11-21-2022 06:37 PM
Did Perseverance manage to get Sample 14 sealed and stowed? I have not seen any news about it in nearly three weeks.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-24-2023 08:23 PM
In early 2022, Perseverance picked up a rock in its left front wheel that refused to leave... until now. From SuperCam team member Gwénaël Caravaca (via Twitter):
Farewell "Rock Friend."
We found out in latest Hazcam we have lost our pet rock in the front left wheel of Perseverance. It spent 427 Sols with us (more than an Earth year!), and traveled about 10 km since Sol 341.
Farewell Rock Friend, you will be missed!
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-27-2025 12:45 PM
Perseverance has set a new Mars rover autonomous driving record:
Perseverance recently traveled 411 m (1,348 ft) in a single autonomous drive, breaking its previous record by 64 m (210 ft). Longer drives bring the rover closer to terrain that could reveal more about the Red Planet’s distant past.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 4191 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 55211 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 09-10-2025 10:01 AM
NASA will host a press conference at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Wednesday (Sept. 10) to discuss the analysis of a rock sampled by the Perseverance Mars rover last year, which is the subject of a forthcoming science paper.
The sample, called "Sapphire Canyon," was collected in July 2024 from a set of rocky outcrops on the edges of Neretva Vallis, a river valley carved by water rushing into Jezero Crater long ago.
Participants in the teleconference include:
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy
Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington
Lindsay Hays, Senior Scientist for Mars Exploration, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance Project Scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California
Joel Hurowitz, planetary scientist, Stony Brook University, New York
Led by NASA and featuring key analysis from Imperial College London, the work has uncovered a range of minerals and organic matter in Martian rocks that point to an ancient history of habitable conditions and potential biological processes on the Red Planet.
An international team, including researchers from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering (ESE) at Imperial, propose that these geological features within the so-called Bright Angel formation in Mars's Jezero Crater are closely connected to organic carbon, and could be a compelling potential biosignature of past life.
Professor Sanjeev Gupta, Professor of Earth Science in ESE, and Academic Co-director of Imperial Global India, said, "This is a very exciting discovery of a potential biosignature but it does not mean we have discovered life on Mars. We now need to analyze this rock sample on Earth to truly confirm if biological processes were involved or not."
posted 08-24-2021 09:07 PM
advertisement