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NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
A filtered photo from the Curiosity rover's Mastcam imaging system shows the transit of Deimos across the sun, as seen from Mars on Sept. 17.
NASA's Curiosity rover has sent back more snapshots of Martian mini-eclipses, the pyramid-shaped rock it's studying up close, and its own star-spangled hardware.
The first pictures from Curiosity's eclipse-watching sessions were received last weekend, focusing on Phobos, the larger of the Red Planet's two moons. That picture showed the satellite taking a slight bite from the sun's edge. Now we have images showing the smaller moon, Deimos, passing across the sun's disk on Sept. 17 (also known as Sol 42 of Curiosity's mission). Take a look at this animated GIF image from the good folks at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, and compare it with these videos from June's transit of Venus. Weirdly similar, right?
There's another shot of a Phobos transit, taken on the morning of Sol 42 on Mars. The Red Planet's moons never completely cover up the sun's disk, but the Sol 42 transit darkened more of the sun than the earlier Phobos mini-eclipse did.
Detailed analysis of these transit pictures will help the Curiosity team get a better sense of the interior structure of Mars and its moons, as Texas A&M's Mark Lemmon explained a couple of days ago. Phobos and Deimos aren't all that different in width (14 miles vs. 8 miles, respectively), but Phobos' apparent size as seen from the Martian surface is noticeably bigger because it orbits so much closer (5,800 miles vs. 14,580 miles for Deimos).
Now Curiosity is turning its attention to a rock that's been nicknamed "Jake Matijevic," in honor of an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who recently passed away. The rover has sent back fresh pictures of the rock, plus views of its U.S. flag medallion and the traditional presidential plaque:
Two images of the top half of the rock known as Jake Matijevic, captured by Curiosity's Mastcam imaging system, are shuffled in this video to produce a 3-D illusion.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The shadow of Curiosity's robotic arm can be seen extending toward Jake in this view from the rover's navigation camera system.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This view of the American flag medallion on NASA's Curiosity rover was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sept. 19 (Sol 44). The flag is one of four "mobility logos" placed on the rover's mobility rocker arms. The circular medallion of the flag is made of anodized aluminum and measures 2.68 inches (68 millimeters) in diameter. The medallion was affixed with bolts to locations on the rocker arms where flight hardware was once considered, but ultimately deemed unnecessary. The other three medallions on the rover's rocker arms display the NASA logo, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's logo and the Curiosity mission logo.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This view of Curiosity's deck shows a plaque bearing several signatures of US officials, including that of President Obama and Vice President Biden. The image was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sept. 19 (Sol 44). The plaque is located on the front left side of the rover's deck. The rectangular plaque is made of anodized aluminum and measures 3.94 inches (100 millimeters) tall by 3.23 inches (82 millimeters) wide. Similar plaques with signatures - including those of the sitting president and vice president - adorn the lander platforms for NASA's Spirit rover and Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars in January 2004
Where in the Cosmos
Curiosity's view of the transit of Deimos served as this week's "Where in the Cosmos" puzzle picture on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. There were lots of interesting guesses as to the nature of the black spot (Venus? Earth? Mercury? Planet X?), but Robert Dryden was the first to identify it correctly as Deimos. To reward his sharp eye for mini-eclipses, I'm sending him a complimentary pair of cardboard 3-D glasses, provided by Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope project. Those red-blue specs will come in handy for checking out Curiosity stereo views like this one, and this one, and this one. You can also feast your eyes on the 3-D views of the shuttle Endeavour produced by the Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla.
Want to be in on next Friday's puzzle? All you have to do is "like" the Cosmic Log Facebook page.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Hello Alan Boyle: I love the view you give to us on all these terrific science ventures, it's beautiful. Thanks.
I have a something I would like you to consider. Look at mankind and think - "Is it a particle or a wave?" The answer is, of course, YES. Stunning, don't you think? It will make your head spin, heh heh.
Hey Alan, you sent me some 3-D specs a while back and thanks for that. But I hope you realize that a lot of us never
use Facebook for various reasons.
It would be cool if you could set up a website or blog site.
Heh, that's what you're reading ... the blog site, cosmiclog.com ;-)
And frequently that most educational blog turns into "Masterpiece Theater."
An excellent educator always keeps things from getting boring........
:-)
Does anyone else think it will be another 250 fifty years before humans can travel to Mars.
Brigama brigama hornecup, how many fingers do I hold up? --It's anybody's guess. Rover is there, so in a sense we are too.
Realistically, it is more like 25 years. A Mars One effort plans to get there sooner with a 1-way trip for colonists, but they have funding issues and I saw nothing on their site to even touch on how they are going to deal with the lethal radiation colonists could receive over time. Hopefully, Elon Musk will push the agenda in a more positive, realistic way (with a 2-way mission). That's his goal, anyway. Maybe in 20 years, if he is successful...
As was the case with the Moon, in the end it was not the technology that sparked the idea and motivation to go to the Moon, It was the combination of Science and the general faith in that Science that got us there. Indeed their were lives lost in the effort and even that did not stop the inevitable.
Once the "Average Joe" believed it was possible, our wonderful agency NASA "Worked the Problem" until it was possible and is now history.
This is the lesson for our Grand Children, This is the major payout for all the money invested.
That "We the People" can make up our minds to do something extraordinary and ordinary people make it happen, with hard work and dedication with no warranty of success, just faith in our dedication and resolve.
"Would you go on a mission to Mars? The Dutch startup company Mars One is planning to establish the first Mars Colony in 2023 starting with four individuals and adding more people every two years, funded by turning the whole endeavor into a REALITY TV show."
More/Continued at:
Smithsoniandotcom Surprising science. Mission to Mars. The Radiation Problem.
(Whenever there is money to be made, MAN finds a way to DO it. :-)
I was really hoping we'd find a Space Jam with MJ and Mars Blackmon
This is great stuff, right up there [maybe even better] with the first moon landing, and man orbit of earth. This is what I like to see my money spent on .... congrats NASA.
How cool is that.....If I was Obama, my name and signature being on the planet Mars would have to stand out as THE highlight of my presidency.
If only we could get get this country back on track to do big things again.....sigh.
Thank You NASA Engineers! The images you provide are absolutely spectacular.
I thought the story was going to say that the rover found Marvin ? :)
Thanks Alan. This is yet another inspiring image from Curiosity. Keep em coming.
When we figure out how to repulse gravity we won't need rocket fuel or any other kind of propellant to travel the universe. The best part about it that we won't need to refuel ever. Cars, trucks and airplanes will run 100% clean and without having to buy fuel. It's sci-fi at the moment, because no one wants to R&D a technology that doesn't include a huge check. Someday money won't matter and we'll all be better off.
Do you have even the slightest notion of how to "repulse gravity"? I thought not. It's not like electrostatics, where you have two types of charge. BTW, vehicles such as cars, unless they are climbing a hill, use their fuel to overcome friction, not gravity.
Whatever the mechanism, I think the idea of natural repulsion fits in - and it should cut down on the fill-ups!
"Whatever the mechanism...." Well then, I guess that the devil's in the details --- except I don't know of a clue that anyone has as to what such a mechanism could be. Also, as I mentioned earlier, your car's fuel is mostly working to overcome friction, not gravity.
Look up Maglev Trains. These use magnetic repulsion to lift them above the tracks and move them along. This reduces friction considerably. So, it's a way of overcoming both gravity and friction--but only with a rail system on a planet's surface. It does use electric power. And actually, with fast-moving vehicles on Earth, overcoming air resistance is the main use of power.
Once an object is in space, there is no friction or any air resistance--and often gravity near large bodies like planets and suns can be used to change course.
Maglev trains do an excellent job of overcoming gravity and friction using magnetism to do this, but they use power to do this and, significantly, overcome air resistance, as you said. But the trains are still subject to attractive gravitational forces and use a scheme using magnetism to lift them --- but they are not using a force which inherently repulses objects under all conditions. Magnetism is not the "repulsion" force that other commentors have claimed to exist.
"Once an object is in space, there is no friction or any air resistance--and often gravity near large bodies like planets and suns can be used to change course."
This gravity is, of couse, an attractive force.
"When we figure out how to repulse gravity we won't need rocket fuel or any other kind of propellant to travel the universe. The best part about it that we won't need to refuel ever."
Why?
Everybody seems to want a 'reactionless' drive, even though present physics doesn't seem to allow that. Or going faster-than-light, but in either case, I'm more than willing to be proven (emphasis on proven) wrong...
But even if it's possible, what makes you think it'll come for free?
First, there's still going to be some irreducible amount of energy that has to be expended, even if it doesn't require Newton's Third Law, and that pesky throwing of mass off the ship.
Second, since we're being totally speculative here, there's no way to know how efficient such a drive may be. You may still end up having to pump two, three, ten, whatever times the theoretical minimum amount of energy into it to get the desired output...the rest likely ending up as waste heat. At this time, you just can't know. (and then there's the efficiency of your source of energy...)
Speculative physics and engineering is fine, as long as you're well grounded in what we know is possible now, but don't expect magic. The Universe gives up nothing for free, or ever allows 100% efficiency in anything. Even in Star Trek, they had limits.Some physical processes, even if unknown to us today, require what they require, period. Even for the 'miracle worker:' "I canna change the laws of physics! I've got to have thirty minutes!"
End and the beginning of a new era of space technology and eras groundAchieved what armies does not achieved in communication and knowledge, publishing and direct transport to any event or religion or belief, science or culture, so that , we can canceling the Force doctrine in the spread of any culture or creed or religion
Alan, go to Arizona, you can get much better pictures and detail of very similar rocks. I have one I named Andy.
Rocks make good pets - easy to care for and they live a long time. All the love you give to them, they give right back to you. It's why they sold so many pet rocks.
And breeding is easy, it only takes a hammer.
Thanks for the video clip about the rock on the Mars; it is interesting that the rock has the regular ridgelines on one side but the intentional bumps, small bumps which are protuberant, on the other side have been pointing to one direction.
The whole Mars has still no green.
I'm so excited to see pictures of Curiosity from Mars. It almost makes the $2 billion dollar cost worth it? I feel like such an idiot that we didn't think of taking those pictures while it was here on Earth!
???
Interesting, but still very boaring. Everyone wants more pictures of Mars up close, not some eclipse of the sun.
I don't remember authorizing you to speak for me, so please don't tell us what 'everyone' wants...
@ johnbarker: How can something be interesting AND boring [not "boaring"] at the same time?
Quit hogging the boared with a snoutful of your boaring comments.
You know, this is the Internet. Properly used, it's the greatest reference tool of all time. The fact that you're here proves that you have access to it.
Rather than expecting someone else to do all the work, how about Googling: NASA Curiosity Mars pictures
Hmm...?
No disrespect was meant towards Boyle. He's one of the best science writers and is always on top of the latest stories from Mars.
I'm just pointing out something that a lot of people like me are wondering, why is the science from Mars coming so slow? Most people want to know what is going on at the Mars surface itself and could care less about eclipses of the sun or some Mar's moon. Most people want to know what is going with the Rover itself and its close up view of Mars.
As for "googling other stories" there is really not a lot news out there so far, otherwise Boyle would write it up. And no doubt he will follow it up as the new stuff does become available.
Real science does not come as quickly as it does in Star Trek, or Star Wars, or CSI.
If this were a TV series, Curiosity could have all the science done is a single season, and a third of it could be done during the pilot episode, along with the launch and landing.
"CSI: Mars - Episode 1: A Crime Scene Curiosity"
"I'm just pointing out something that a lot of people like me are wondering, why is the science from Mars coming so slow?"
I'm not sure what it is you expect. Research proceeds slowly. Almost any kind of research does.
"As for "googling other stories" there is really not a lot news out there so far, otherwise Boyle would write it up."
You see, that's what I mean. Have you actually checked? This is a great space/science site, but it's not the only one I frequent, and I can find other information. Alan (or anyone else) can't follow everything in the same degree of depth. The 'exciting' part (landing) is over. Now it's slow grunt work. And it would be just as true, if humans were present.
Seriously, if you want to know more, instead of waiting, you must do more of your own research. Starting with NASA/JPL sites. Dig.
Do any of you guys know any really hard core deep space ham operators that have a dish large enough to track curiosity live? Or is there an "ATR" air traffic style website that does that? Probably not, but would be interesting.
Anyway, I think the science is coming through slowly because it is heavily buffered before it is released to the public.
It is just too slow. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but this slow science thing looks suspicious to me. Give me a break kids. The guys who landed on the moon did their science in a very short time and the communication link could not keep up with the science.
Now we have the oppposite situation where we have massive communication and little to no science? That is very suspicious for filtering and buffering.
BTW, just to clarify my previous comment, this is the coolest site for monitoring air traffic control. It would be nice to have something like this for Curiosity on Mars.:
http://www.liveatc.net/
Was that a picture of the shadow of Mecha Ghidorah?