Rosetta briefing

Rosetta briefing

ESA at Le Bourget

ESA at Le Bourget

Iridescent Mercury

Iridescent Mercury

Rosetta's lander Philae wakes up from hibernation

Rosetta's lander Philae wakes up from hibernation

OPPORTUNITY TAKES A LOOK AT MARATHON VALLEY

FROM:  NASA

This view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows part of "Marathon Valley," a destination on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, as seen from an overlook north of the valley.  The scene spans from east, at left, to southeast. It combines four pointings of the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) on March 13, 2015, during the 3,958th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars.

 The rover team selected Marathon Valley as a science destination because observations of this location using the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter yielded evidence of clay minerals, a clue to ancient wet environments. By the time Opportunity explores Marathon Valley, the rover will have exceeded a total driving distance equivalent to an Olympic marathon.

Opportunity has been exploring the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since January 2004.  This version of the image is presented in approximate true color by combining exposures taken through three of the Pancam's color filters at each of the four camera pointings, using filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet).  Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

Le Bourget 2015

Le Bourget 2015

Week In Images

Week In Images

Landing highlights

Landing highlights

Keeping energy clean and the countryside quiet

Keeping energy clean and the countryside quiet

Lost in space

Lost in space

ESA at the Paris Air & Space Show

ESA at the Paris Air & Space Show

MUSE Museum

MUSE Museum

MARS SURFACE FROM SPACE

FROM:  NASA 

This image of a circular depression on the surface of Mars was acquired on Jan. 5, 2015 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since March 2006 and completed its 40,000th orbit around Mars on Feb. 7, 2015.  The target of this observation is a circular depression in a dark-toned unit associated with a field of cones to the northeast. At the scale of an image taken by MRO's Context Camera, which provides wide area views to provide context for high-resolution analysis, the depression appears to expose layers especially on the sides or walls, which are overlain by dark sands presumably associated with the dark-toned unit. The HiRISE camera's resolution, which is far higher than that of the Context Camera and its larger footprint, can help identify possible layers.  HiRISE is one of six instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.  Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech-University of Arizona.

Week In Images

Week In Images

Tianjin

Tianjin