Feed aggregator

New insights into the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres indicates planet-wide rainfall might take place following hydrogen atmosphere and water mixing.

A team of researchers traced the wild animal source of the mpox virus to the fire-footed rope squirrel

The search for life in our Solar System, however primitive, past or present has typically focussed upon Mars and a select few moons of the outer Solar System. Saturn’s moon Titan for example has all the raw materials for life scattered across its surface, rivers and lakes of methane along with rock and sand containing water ice. There’s even a sprinkling of organic compounds too but according to a new study, Titan can probably only support a few kilograms of biomass overall, that’s just one cell per litre of water across Titan’s ocean.

Image: New ESA invention tested in a chamber of no echoes

A little math from the 1600s can make what people send to a printer more vulnerable

People on TikTok and other social media say they feel more alert when they have had fewer hours of sleep—but sleep scientists warn this is a false sense of energy

Nicknamed the “Big Wheel,” a giant, spiral-shaped disk galaxy was spotted in an unusually crowded part of the early universe just two billion years after the big bang

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch Amazon's first big batch of Project Kuiper broadband satellites today (April 9), and you can watch it live.

Bacterial vaginosis is an irritating overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. A new study has found that some cases of the condition should be treated like a sexually transmitted infection.

This new snapshot from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express deftly captures the two distinct faces of Mars: ridged and rugged versus smooth and unmarked.

The striking Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) photograph was captured by astrophotographer Josh Dury at 4:50 a.m. local time on April 9.

Trump-era trade policies could reshape the global space economy, straining transatlantic ties and pushing Europe toward new partnerships and greater autonomy.

What kind of mission would be best suited to sample the plumes of Saturn’s ocean world, Enceladus, to determine if this intriguing world has the ingredients to harbor life? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the pros and cons of an orbiter or flyby mission to sample Enceladus’ plumes. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and mission planners design and develop the most scientifically effective mission to Enceladus with the goal of determining its potential habitability.

Why does Jupiter have rings?

In the great tug-of-war between the Sun and its planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus are much more susceptible to solar activities than scientists thought. Jupiter itself has an interesting reaction as it gets pummeled several times a month by solar wind bursts. They compress its magnetosphere and create a huge "hot spot" with temperatures over 500C.

Curiosity Navigation

• Curiosity Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

3 min read

Sols 4505-4506: Up, up and onto the Devil’s Gate  This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4503 (2025-04-07 00:33:50 UTC). NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick

Earth planning date: Monday, April 7, 2025

Over the weekend, we completed our drive up the steep side of a canyon, up onto “Devil’s Gate,” a small butte which forms part of the ridge along the top of the canyon and now we can see down into the next canyon. It is always true that we are going somewhere no one has been before – that’s the idea of an exploratory mission after all, and everyone kind of gets used to it, we don’t stop to think about it. But today, coming over the top of a hill like this and fully looking for the first time into an area that we have only had glimpses of before, it really brings it home that the mission is doing something extraordinary, something out of this world …. and brings that feeling of awe back into focus. 

We did not pass SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) a couple of times as we climbed up the side of this canyon, meaning that the contact science instruments (APXS and MAHLI) had to stand down for that day’s planning. However, this morning, in addition to a brand new vista, we saw that all six wheels are firmly on the ground and we passed SRAP quickly this morning, which must have been a relief to the rover planner in charge of assessing it today! (no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, day after day!) 

Bedrock here has both flat bedrock and amazing large nodular features, which appear to have “wind tails” caused by winds consistently blowing in the same direction. This is a Touch and Go plan, so APXS and MAHLI are focusing on a single target, the brushed “Coronado” target on the flat bedrock in front of us. ChemCam will use LIBS to investigate the nodular features at “La Cumbre Peak.”  

Near the rover, Mastcam will image some small diagenetic features at “Boulder Oaks” and the LIBS target. The 3×2 (2 rows of 3 images) “La Jolla Valley” mosaic focuses on a very nodular patch, just outside of the workspace reachable by the arm. Further from the rover, the 6×2 mosaic (2 rows of 6 images) “Los Penasquitos” looks at an amazing almost vertical vein. This discontinuous vein stretches for about 6 meters (about 18 feet), with vein fins sticking above the surface at various points, like a series of shark fins breaking the bedrock surface. Much further afield, ChemCam will acquire a long distance image on “Condor Peak,” which appears to have large scale vein networks, known as “boxwork structures” and may be an early example of the boxworks we are hoping to reach in Fall 2025.  

The ENV (Environmental and Atmospheric group) planned a Mastcam “tau” measurement, to look at dust in the atmosphere. There is a paired Navcam activity, looking at dust devils towards the north of the crater on the first sol and towards the south on the second sol. A suprahorizon movie and our usual DAN and REMS measurements round out this plan.  

Let’s see what the next drive will reveal to us! 

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

The Mars Report: February 2025

The Mars Report from NASA — this newsletter is your source for everything on or about the Red Planet. The…

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate

Article


1 day ago

3 min read Sols 4500-4501: Bedrock With a Side of Sand

Article


1 day ago

3 min read Sols 4498-4499: Flexing Our Arm Once Again

Article


5 days ago

Curiosity Navigation

• Curiosity Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

3 min read

Sols 4505-4506: Up, up and onto the Devil’s Gate  This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4503 (2025-04-07 00:33:50 UTC). NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick

Earth planning date: Monday, April 7, 2025

Over the weekend, we completed our drive up the steep side of a canyon, up onto “Devil’s Gate,” a small butte which forms part of the ridge along the top of the canyon and now we can see down into the next canyon. It is always true that we are going somewhere no one has been before – that’s the idea of an exploratory mission after all, and everyone kind of gets used to it, we don’t stop to think about it. But today, coming over the top of a hill like this and fully looking for the first time into an area that we have only had glimpses of before, it really brings it home that the mission is doing something extraordinary, something out of this world …. and brings that feeling of awe back into focus. 

We did not pass SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) a couple of times as we climbed up the side of this canyon, meaning that the contact science instruments (APXS and MAHLI) had to stand down for that day’s planning. However, this morning, in addition to a brand new vista, we saw that all six wheels are firmly on the ground and we passed SRAP quickly this morning, which must have been a relief to the rover planner in charge of assessing it today! (no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, day after day!) 

Bedrock here has both flat bedrock and amazing large nodular features, which appear to have “wind tails” caused by winds consistently blowing in the same direction. This is a Touch and Go plan, so APXS and MAHLI are focusing on a single target, the brushed “Coronado” target on the flat bedrock in front of us. ChemCam will use LIBS to investigate the nodular features at “La Cumbre Peak.”  

Near the rover, Mastcam will image some small diagenetic features at “Boulder Oaks” and the LIBS target. The 3×2 (2 rows of 3 images) “La Jolla Valley” mosaic focuses on a very nodular patch, just outside of the workspace reachable by the arm. Further from the rover, the 6×2 mosaic (2 rows of 6 images) “Los Penasquitos” looks at an amazing almost vertical vein. This discontinuous vein stretches for about 6 meters (about 18 feet), with vein fins sticking above the surface at various points, like a series of shark fins breaking the bedrock surface. Much further afield, ChemCam will acquire a long distance image on “Condor Peak,” which appears to have large scale vein networks, known as “boxwork structures” and may be an early example of the boxworks we are hoping to reach in Fall 2025.  

The ENV (Environmental and Atmospheric group) planned a Mastcam “tau” measurement, to look at dust in the atmosphere. There is a paired Navcam activity, looking at dust devils towards the north of the crater on the first sol and towards the south on the second sol. A suprahorizon movie and our usual DAN and REMS measurements round out this plan.  

Let’s see what the next drive will reveal to us! 

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

The Mars Report: February 2025

The Mars Report from NASA — this newsletter is your source for everything on or about the Red Planet. The…

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate

Article


1 day ago

3 min read Sols 4500-4501: Bedrock With a Side of Sand

Article


1 day ago

3 min read Sols 4498-4499: Flexing Our Arm Once Again

Article


5 days ago

Up until recently, astronomy was reliant entirely on electromagnetic waves. While that changed with the confirmation of gravitational waves in 2016, astronomers had developed fundamental frameworks in the electromagnetic spectrum by that point. One critical framework broke the spectrum into three categories based on their wavelength - infrared, optical, and ultraviolet. To astronomers, each of these categories was created by a different physical phenomenon, and monitoring each gave its insight into what that phenomenon was doing, no matter what the other spectra said. This was especially prevalent when researching galaxies, as infrared and optical wavelengths were used to analyze different aspects of galaxy formation and behavior. However, Christian Kragh Jespersen of Princeton's Department of Astrophysics and his colleagues think they have found a secret that breaks the entire electromagnetic framework - the optical and infrared are connected.

It’s easy to measure the rotation rate of terrestrial planet by tracking surface features but the gas and ice giants pose more of a problem. Instead, previous studies have relied upon indirect measures like measuring the rotation of their magnetic fields. Now a team of astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to refine the rotation rate of Uranus with an incredible level of accuracy. This time though, instead of studying the rotation of the magnetic field, they tracked aurora to measure one rotation!

We all know that black holes can devour stars. Rip them apart and consume their remnants. But that only happens if a star passes too close to a black hole. What if a star gets close enough to a star to experience strong tidal effects, but not close enough to be immediately devoured? This scenario is considered in a recent paper on the arXiv.