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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Luxembourg's National Advanced Optical System spacecraft and several smaller satellites to orbit from California today (Aug. 26).

In the past decade, the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has revealed the nature, history, and behaviour of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer has reshaped our view of the skies around us like no other, revealing that star clusters are more connected than expected over vast distances.

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3 min read

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4638-4640: Imaging Extravaganza Atop a Ridge NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image on Aug. 21, 2025, looking across the ridge that the rover is currently parked near the edge of, looking down into the “Thumb” region that mission planners hope to be exploring next week. Curiosity captured this image using its Left Navigation Camera on Sol 4636, or Martian day 4,636 of the MArs Science Laboratory mission, at 16:09:13 UTC.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

Curiosity is continuing its winding path through the mysterious boxwork structures that have been a major focus of the last several months of the mission. After driving away from “Río Frío,” we are now parked on top of a ridge overlooking a topographic depression that we’ve nicknamed the “Thumb.” The image on this post shows that ridge running along the “thumb’s” edge. Our goal today is to characterize this ridge before we drive down into the Thumb.

Because we had a lot of power and three sols available to play around with, this weekend plan is packed with a lot of good science. The boxwork structures in our immediate vicinity get a lot of attention, with Mastcam images planned of the targets “Wallatiri,” “Wallatiri 2,” “Mojo,” “Samaipata,” “Fort Samaipata,” and “Río Lluta,” as well as a nearby trough. ChemCam will be taking LIBS measurements of both Samaipata and Fort Saaipata as well. Samaipata gets even more attention from MAHLI, in addition to the targets “Vitichi” and “Tartagalita,” both of which will also be observed by APXS. 

The boxwork structures don’t get all of the fun today, though. In addition to all of the boxwork observations, Mastcam will be documenting the ChemCam AEGIS target from Monday’s plan, and will also be doing some more imaging of the “Mishe Mokwa” butte. The highlight of Mastcam’s work in this plan (at least in my opinion) is the large 44-image mosaic of the north crater rim, taking advantage of the particularly low dust content of the atmosphere at this time of year. ChemCam will be taking several RMI images of Mishe Mokwa and a distant outcrop at “Dragones” that we will be driving towards over the next several months, as well as the usual post-drive AEGIS.

Rounding out this plan is a collection of observations of the atmosphere. In addition to typical DAN, REMS, and RAD activities, Curiosity’s Navcams will be put to work with a dust-devil movie, dust-devil survey, five cloud movies, and two line-of-sight observations of the north crater rim. Mastcam also gets involved in the environmental fun with a tau to track the amount of dust in the air.

Even with all of these activities, we decided that we aren’t yet done with this area. The drive in today’s plan is a short bump of about 2 meters (about 6.6 feet), so we’re all looking forward to continuing our investigation of this ridge on Monday.

• Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?

  Visit Mission Updates

• Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments?

  Visit the Science Instruments page

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

Details Last Updated Aug 26, 2025 Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More 3 min read To See the World in a Grain of Sand: Investigating Megaripples at ‘Kerrlaguna’ Article 4 days ago 2 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4636-4637: Up Against a Wall Article 5 days ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4634-4635: A Waiting Game Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

All Mars Resources

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

Rover Basics

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

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…

Curiosity Navigation

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

3 min read

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4638-4640: Imaging Extravaganza Atop a Ridge NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image on Aug. 21, 2025, looking across the ridge that the rover is currently parked near the edge of, looking down into the “Thumb” region that mission planners hope to be exploring next week. Curiosity captured this image using its Left Navigation Camera on Sol 4636, or Martian day 4,636 of the MArs Science Laboratory mission, at 16:09:13 UTC.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

Curiosity is continuing its winding path through the mysterious boxwork structures that have been a major focus of the last several months of the mission. After driving away from “Río Frío,” we are now parked on top of a ridge overlooking a topographic depression that we’ve nicknamed the “Thumb.” The image on this post shows that ridge running along the “thumb’s” edge. Our goal today is to characterize this ridge before we drive down into the Thumb.

Because we had a lot of power and three sols available to play around with, this weekend plan is packed with a lot of good science. The boxwork structures in our immediate vicinity get a lot of attention, with Mastcam images planned of the targets “Wallatiri,” “Wallatiri 2,” “Mojo,” “Samaipata,” “Fort Samaipata,” and “Río Lluta,” as well as a nearby trough. ChemCam will be taking LIBS measurements of both Samaipata and Fort Saaipata as well. Samaipata gets even more attention from MAHLI, in addition to the targets “Vitichi” and “Tartagalita,” both of which will also be observed by APXS. 

The boxwork structures don’t get all of the fun today, though. In addition to all of the boxwork observations, Mastcam will be documenting the ChemCam AEGIS target from Monday’s plan, and will also be doing some more imaging of the “Mishe Mokwa” butte. The highlight of Mastcam’s work in this plan (at least in my opinion) is the large 44-image mosaic of the north crater rim, taking advantage of the particularly low dust content of the atmosphere at this time of year. ChemCam will be taking several RMI images of Mishe Mokwa and a distant outcrop at “Dragones” that we will be driving towards over the next several months, as well as the usual post-drive AEGIS.

Rounding out this plan is a collection of observations of the atmosphere. In addition to typical DAN, REMS, and RAD activities, Curiosity’s Navcams will be put to work with a dust-devil movie, dust-devil survey, five cloud movies, and two line-of-sight observations of the north crater rim. Mastcam also gets involved in the environmental fun with a tau to track the amount of dust in the air.

Even with all of these activities, we decided that we aren’t yet done with this area. The drive in today’s plan is a short bump of about 2 meters (about 6.6 feet), so we’re all looking forward to continuing our investigation of this ridge on Monday.

• Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?

  Visit Mission Updates

• Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments?

  Visit the Science Instruments page

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

Details Last Updated Aug 26, 2025 Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More 3 min read To See the World in a Grain of Sand: Investigating Megaripples at ‘Kerrlaguna’ Article 4 days ago 2 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4636-4637: Up Against a Wall Article 5 days ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4634-4635: A Waiting Game Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

All Mars Resources

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

Rover Basics

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

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 JWST has found another moon orbiting Uranus. It's the planet's 29th known moon, and it bears the uninspiring, temporary name S/2025 U1. It's too small and faint to be detected by the Hubble, or by Voyager 2, the only spacecraft to visit the ice giant.

Neil Armstrong almost made a mistake. He had found an interesting rock sticking out of a formation. Curious to see what the rock was made of, he needed to examine its interior more closely. So he reached for his hammer and took a swing.

Earth’s atmosphere is large, extending out to around 10,000 km from the surface of the planet. It’s so large, in fact, that scientists break it into five separate sections, and there’s one particular section that hasn’t got a whole lot of attention due to the difficulty in keeping any craft afloat there. Planes and balloons can visit the troposphere and stratosphere, the two sections closest to the ground, while satellites can sit in orbit in the thermosphere and exosphere, allowing for a platform for consistent observations. But the mesosphere, the section in the middle, is too close to have a stable orbit, but too sparse in air for traditional airplanes or balloons to work. As a result, we don’t have a lot of data on it, but it impacts climate and weather forecasting, so scientists have simply had to make a lot of assumptions about what it's like up there. But a new study from researchers at Harvard and the University of Chicago might have found a way to put stable sensing platforms into the mesosphere, using a novel flight mechanism known as photophoresis.

SpaceX scrubbed the planned 10th test flight of its Starship megarocket for the second day in a row today (Aug. 25), this time because of some uncooperative clouds.

African countries imported a record number of solar panels in the past year, which could be the beginning of a green energy boom on the continent

African countries imported a record number of solar panels in the past year, which could be the beginning of a green energy boom on the continent

Electronic devices that dissolve in water could make it easier to create and recycle technology prototypes – and they could even inspire more sustainable commercial devices

Electronic devices that dissolve in water could make it easier to create and recycle technology prototypes – and they could even inspire more sustainable commercial devices

Microbes found buried deep in Siberian permafrost may be able to survive over extremely long timescales using protein repair genes

Microbes found buried deep in Siberian permafrost may be able to survive over extremely long timescales using protein repair genes

This gruesome parasite is more of a threat to your burger than to you

Lucasfilm unveiled a sneak peek at Volume 3 of "Star Wars: Visions" that hints at something new coming from a galaxy far, far away.

Over 500,000 light years across,

In a rare move for a U.S. public official, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., called for a paper that found no link between aluminum in vaccines and disease to be retracted. The journal rejected the request

The opinion opens a door for future claims by countries seeking reparations for climate-related harm.

Scientists using NASA's Juno spacecraft have discovered a new plasma wave in Jupiter's auroras, offering fresh insight into space weather and magnetism.