Tag Archive for 'Curiosity'

This image of the Paposo rock was taken by Curiosity’s MAHLI instrument on July 24, 2025. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Finds Coral-Shaped Rocks on Mars

Aug 12, 2025 by Natali Anderson

On July 24, 2025, the 4,608th Martian day, or Sol, of the mission, NASA’s Curiosity rover imaged wind-eroded rocks shaped like a piece of coral in the...

Curiosity sees its tracks receding into the distance at a site nicknamed Ubajara on April 30, 2023; this site is where the rover made the discovery of siderite. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Carbonate Minerals Found by Curiosity Indicate Carbon Cycle Operated on Early Mars

Apr 17, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the planet was ever capable...

This graphic shows the long-chain organic molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane, and NASA’s Curiosity rover. Image credit: NASA / Dan Gallagher.

Curiosity Finds Long-Chain Carbon Molecules in Martian Mudstone

Mar 25, 2025 by Natali Anderson

The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected decane, undecane, and dodecane molecules in a sample from Gale crater. This...

This Curiosity/Mastcam image shows noctilucent clouds in the Martian atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / SSI.

Curiosity Spots Noctilucent Clouds in Martian Atmosphere

Feb 13, 2025 by News Staff

New images, taken over 16 min on January 17, 2025 by the Mastcam instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover, show noctilucent, or twilight clouds, in the atmosphere...

An artist’s concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue areas) on its surface. Image credit: NASA / MAVEN / Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Carbonate Minerals from Gale Crater Shed Light on Ancient Martian Climate

Oct 8, 2024 by News Staff

Carbonate minerals are of particular interest in paleoenvironmental research as they are an integral part of the carbon and water cycles, both of which...

Yellow crystals of elemental sulfur on Mars. Image credit: NASA.

Curiosity Finds Pure Sulfur on Mars

Jul 22, 2024 by News Staff

Yellow crystals of elemental sulfur were revealed after NASA’s Curiosity rover happened to drive over a rock and crack it open on May 30, 2024, according...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Ancient Mars was Cool and Relatively Wet, New Study Suggests

Jul 11, 2024 by News Staff

In a new study, planetary scientists found strong similarities between soils found in Gale Crater on Mars and those of Canada’s Newfoundland, a cold...

Mastcam mosaic from the Sol 1686 rover location looking behind the rover (downslope) at the transition point between the Sutton Island and Blunts Point Murray members. Images from Sols 1685-1689 display sedimentary textures of dark-toned manganese-rich sandstones and nearby rocks. Dashed line boxes in the large mosaic are shown as insets along the bottom of figure. Small red outlines show the approximate locations and extent of ChemCam observations. Throughout this transition area, dark-toned sandstones (presumably manganese-rich based on ChemCam observations at three locations) overlie light-toned materials. Insets from left to right: (a) Denning Brook, a manganese-rich fine-grained dark-toned sandstone ChemCam observation; (b) and (c) two light-toned blocks with cross-stratified textures, highlighted with yellow lines, 6 m away from Denning Brook and to the upper left in the large mosaic; (d) dark-toned materials (center of mosaic); and (E1) Newport Ledge, (E2) AEGIS post 1685a, (E3) Sugarloaf Mountain, three thin planar laminated dark-toned sandstones. Image credit: NASA / Caltech-JPL / MSSS.

Manganese-Rich Sandstones Point to Earth-Like Environment on Ancient Mars

May 2, 2024 by News Staff

In May 2017, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed higher than usual amounts of manganese in the lakebed rocks within Gale crater, Mars. These sedimentary...

Bench-and-slope morphology pictured on Mars (top) and nose morphology from the ground at Mars Mont Mercou outcrop (bottom). Image credit: NASA / Caltech-JPL / MSSS.

Ancient Mars was Planet of Rivers, Planetary Scientists Say

Oct 25, 2023 by News Staff

Ancient river deposits exist across Mars and can be identified in satellite data by erosional landforms called fluvial ridges. Fluvial ridges take the...

Polygonal ridges on Mars: (a) general view of bedrock surrounding the rover on sols 3,154 to 3,156 showing widespread polygonal ridges; (b) close-up showing ‘stepped’ exposure of polygons within large bedrock blocks; (c) view of bedrock with polygons and locations of ChemCam analysis on ridge (red rectangle) and APXS analysis on smooth host bedrock (dotted circle); (d) remote micro-image of cemented ridge with spots analyzed by ChemCam (reticles 1 to 5), highlighting details of nodular texture; (e, f) bedrock with polygonal pattern (e) and interpretative overlay (f) that shows prominent ridges (solid red lines), less certain ridges (dotted red lines) and cross-cutting later-stage Ca-sulfate-filled veins (white areas). Image credit: Rapin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06220-3.

Early Mars Had a Sustained, Cyclic, Possibly Seasonal, Climate

Aug 10, 2023 by News Staff

New observations of mud cracks made by NASA’s Curiosity rover show that high-frequency, wet-dry cycling occurred in early Martian surface environments,...

This feather-shaped iridescent cloud was captured just after sunset on January 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or Sol, of Curiosity’s mission. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Rover Images Sun Rays and Feather-Shaped Clouds on Mars

Mar 6, 2023 by News Staff

‘Sun rays’ are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for twilight. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. This...

Since landing on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity has been exploring Mt. Sharp in Gale Crater. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Celebrates Ten Years on Mars

Aug 5, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover successfully landed in Gale Crater on Mars on August 5, 2012, to search for evidence that the Red Planet could once have supported...

(a) Location of the Buckskin mudstone sample (red star) in Gale Crater, Mars; (b and c) images from the Mars Hand Lens Imager onboard the Curiosity rover of (b) Lamoose, a local float block adjacent to Buckskin within the Murray formation showing laminations, and (c) Buckskin. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Rare Mineral from Martian Crater was Created in Explosive Volcanic Eruption Over 3 Billion Years Ago

Jul 26, 2022 by News Staff

Tridymite is a high-temperature, low-pressure form of quartz that is extremely rare on Earth, and it wasn’t clear how a chunk of it ended up in Gale...

This image was taken by Mastcam onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover on Sol 3466 (May 7, 2022 at 07:58:16 UTC). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Did Curiosity Rover Find ‘Doorway’ on Mars?

May 30, 2022 by The Conversation

On May 7, 2022, the Mast camera (Mastcam) onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover took a photo which appeared to show a doorway carved into the Martian rock. This...

This MAHLI image shows a tighter view of the flower-like rock artifact. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds ‘Coral’ on Mars

Mar 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has imaged a flower-like rock artifact in the Gale crater on Mars. This image from the MAHLI...

A selfie taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2291 (January 15, 2019) at the ‘Rock Hall’ drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity’s Samples from Martian Crater Strongly Depleted in Carbon-13, Researchers Say

Jan 18, 2022 by News Staff

An analysis of carbon isotopes in sediment samples taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover from Gale crater, Mars, leave planetary researchers with three plausible...

Curiosity used its navigation cameras to capture panoramas of this scene at two times of day. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Team Releases Stunning Panorama of Martian Landscape

Nov 26, 2021 by News Staff

Members of NASA’s Curiosity rover mission team have combined two versions of the black-and-white images of Martian mountains from different times of...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Sheds New Light on Martian Methane Mystery

Jul 1, 2021 by News Staff

The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) chemistry lab onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected atmospheric methane...

Curiosity captured these clouds just after sunset on March 19, 2021, the 3,063rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. The image is made up of 21 individual images stitched together and color corrected so that the scene appears as it would to the human eye. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Spots Carbon Dioxide-Ice Clouds in Martian Skies

May 28, 2021 by News Staff

In March 2021, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed clouds made of carbon dioxide (CO2) ice at high altitudes in the atmosphere of Mars. Curiosity captured...

The young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 m deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 km. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Martian Climate Fluctuated between Drier and Wetter Periods Before It Went Dry

Apr 19, 2021 by News Staff

Mars had drier and wetter eras before drying up completely in the Hesperian period, about 3 billion years ago, according to an analysis of observational...

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