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The record-breaking global temperatures seen in late 2023 may have emerged partly because of unusual conditions in the Pacific Ocean in the preceding years

The record-breaking global temperatures seen in late 2023 may have emerged partly because of unusual conditions in the Pacific Ocean in the preceding years

"It's a discovery that underlines things may be different from what they appear to us at first glance."

China is having a fast-rising chikungunya outbreak in a place that has never had one before.

A rare August morning alignment brings Mercury, a thin crescent moon and the Beehive Cluster together in the predawn sky. Here's how you can see it for yourself.

Large dark matter particles hitting Jupiter’s largest moon would form distinctive craters in its icy surface, and upcoming space missions might be able to spot them

Large dark matter particles hitting Jupiter’s largest moon would form distinctive craters in its icy surface, and upcoming space missions might be able to spot them

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2 min read

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4629-4630: Feeling Hollow NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of its workspace, including the small crescent-shaped rock named “Wedge Tailed Hillstar,” visible in the image just above the letters “SI” written on Curiosity’s arm. Curiosity captured the image using its Left Navigation Camera on Aug. 13, 2025 — Sol 4628, or Martian day 4,628 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 08:54:46 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Elena Amador-French, Science Operations Coordinator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025

Today’s team investigated the texture and chemistry of the bedrock within a topographic low, or hollow, found within the greater boxwork area. We will place our APXS instrument on the “Asiruqucha” target, some light-toned, small-scale nodular bedrock in the middle of our workspace. These data will help illuminate any systematic chemical trends between the hollows and ridges in this area. We always take an associated MAHLI image with every APXS measurement to help contextualize the chemistry. We will also observe a small crescent-shaped rock named “Wedge Tailed Hillstar” with MAHLI, visible in the above Navcam image just above the letters “SI” written on Curiosity’s arm.

We will use our remote sensing instruments to continue documenting the region taking stereo Mastcam images of “Cerro Paranal,” “Rio Frio,” and “Anchoveta.”  The ChemCam instrument will take an image of, and collect chemical information for, the target “Camanchaca,” as well as use its Remote Micro Imager (RMI) to take high-resolution imaging of more distant boxwork features. 

Once these observations are completed Curiosity will set off on a 30-meter drive (about 98 feet), taking us to an interesting ridge feature to investigate in Friday’s plan.

As usual we will continue to take our regular atmospheric monitoring observations using REMS, RAD, and DAN.

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the base of Mount Sharp NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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Last Updated

Aug 18, 2025

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