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Galileo was one of the first people to study the Moon through a telescope. You'd think he'd get more than 10-mile-wide crater for his efforts. But of course, there's more to the story.

The post Why Did Galileo Get Such a Puny Crater? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The solar dynamo that drives sunspots and solar flares could be located near the surface of the sun scientists find, solving a 400-year-old solar mystery and providing a weird link to black holes.

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Sols 1151-1152: Rocky Roads in the Margin Unit Mars Perseverance Sol 1150 – Left Navigation Camera: Perseverance’s afternoon view looking towards the northwest. The rocky terrain in the foreground is part of the margin unit that is currently being investigated by the team. Beyond lies Nereteva Vallis, an ancient river channel that the team hopes to explore in the coming weeks. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth planning date: Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Recently, our intrepid rover has been channeling its namesake while navigating through difficult terrain as we march on through the margin unit. Despite the shorter drives, the team continues to make good progress investigating the rocks around us while scouting our traverse ahead.

On Wednesday, we took advantage of being parked during a routine flight software update to take a closer look at the local rocks with our proximity science instruments. While there was limited outcrop in the vicinity of the rover, the team surveyed some options within reach and selected to abrade a target named “Old Faithful Geyser.” Such abrasion will allow us to look at a fresh and clean rock surface unobscured by dust or rock coatings. Since our last abrasion at the Bunsen Peak workspace almost 1 km to the east, the team has been working hard to understand the potential textural and compositional variability across the margin unit that may give important insight into the geologic history of these rocks. Following abrasion, the team will plan detailed chemical measurements with the PlXL instrument over the weekend.

In addition to our abrasion activities, we planned some remote science observations on nearby rocks with the SuperCam and Mastcam-Z instruments. Mastcam-Z was also used to acquire longer distance imaging looking east down into Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley carved by water over 3 billion years ago. After wrapping up our investigations of the abrasion patch, Perseverance will head a short distance northwest to a high point named Overlook Mountain. There the team will assess a potential traverse path down into Neretva Vallis to take advantage of more benign terrain and investigate outcrops and boulders within the valley. Such investigations will hopefully reveal important clues about the timing of geologic events in Jezero and the relationship of the margin unit rocks with the surrounding units.

Written by Bradley Garczynski, Postdoctoral Scientist at Western Washington University

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May 22, 2024

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Sols 4191-4192: Communication This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4190 (2024-05-20 07:37:47 UTC). NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth planning date: Monday, May 20, 2024

A number of national holidays are taking place around the world this week and next, unofficially marking the start of summer for residents of the northern hemisphere. Holidays and extended weekends are seen as a time to catch up with family and friends, often centered around food and meaningful conversation. As a Canadian, my family, friends, and several of my Curiosity colleagues back in Canada may be doing exactly that for Victoria Day right now as I write today’s blog from St. Louis Missouri, where I am currently engulfed by the steady and deafening drone of a double brood of both 13-year and 17-year periodical cicadas communicating with each other, something that hasn’t happened since 1803.

While Curiosity may not know a holiday, it too is transitioning to summer, with perihelion only just recently passed and (southern) summer solstice a mere couple weeks ahead. Curiosity’s operations are not only supported by a number of team members located all over the world, but also by multiple spacecraft orbiting Mars (as well as their respective teams). These orbital assets provide vital communication relays, primarily from Mars to Earth. 

It was a pretty standard Monday plan for our intrepid rover, with the science team electing to utilize the rover’s contact science instruments before a drive in the first sol of a two-sol plan. Activities focused primarily on the “Pine Creek” target, located roughly in the center of the prominent bedrock block just above the aptly designed QR code on Curiosity’s arm. Post-brush compositional analyses by APXS and ChemCam were complemented by images acquired by MAHLI and Mastcam. Prior to a ~30 m dogleg drive, Mastcam also acquired images of “Fairview Dome,” “Pika Lake,” “Whitebark Pass,” and “Wilkerson Butte.” A lengthy DAN passive activity also featured prominently on the first sol. The second sol of the plan included ChemCam AEGIS, a Navcam suprahorizon movie, and SAM cleaning activity following up its atmospheric analysis over the weekend.

Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University

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May 22, 2024

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The big puma fungus hasn't been seen since it was discovered in 1982 in Chile’s Nahuelbuta mountains – now an expedition has finally rediscovered these tiny, elusive mushrooms

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Black holes are such a drag! Especially for the guts of stars they've destroyed and the fabric of spacetime they pull along with them.

To avoid the worst effects of climate change, the world must balance carbon emissions with carbon sinks by 2050. But even if we hit the target, a lot depends on how much we emit in the meantime

ESA has signed two contracts with European industry to develop a commercial service capable of transporting cargo to and from the International Space Station in low Earth orbit by 2030.

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The 1st astronaut mission aboard Boeing's Starliner will not lift off May 25 as planned. NASA has not yet revealed the cause, but a helium leak has been ongoing in the spacecraft.

An excavation on Timor reveals humans first settled on the island 44,000 years ago, long after the earliest occupation of Australia – suggesting migration to the latter took another route

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A new report by NASA outlines the most promising approaches to keeping the space around Earth safe and usable for future generations.

Cooperation theorist Athena Aktipis talks about zombies, game theory, go bags and more in her new book, A Field Guide to the Apocalypse.

Cattle seem to be more willing to lick and accept food from women, and are more likely to act aggressively around men

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