…in this latest panorama from Perseverance.

Blue stones and sand pyramids, endless fields of dust.

Something like some parts of Earth but….these are places in which no living being has ever trod.

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/26616/perseverance-looks-toward-santa-cruz/

Bubblecar said:

…in this latest panorama from Perseverance.

Blue stones and sand pyramids, endless fields of dust.

Something like some parts of Earth but….these are places in which no living being has ever trod.

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/26616/perseverance-looks-toward-santa-cruz/

amazing snaps.

Bubblecar said:

…in this latest panorama from Perseverance.

Blue stones and sand pyramids, endless fields of dust.

Something like some parts of Earth but….these are places in which no living being has ever trod.

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/26616/perseverance-looks-toward-santa-cruz/

Quite lovely

Those rocks are startlingly smooth. Water? Or wind-blasting like desert pavement of Earth?

Now on Mars for a year.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces record-breaking 25th flight. https://www.space.com/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-record-breaking-25th-flight

It went 704 meters at 5.5 meters per second while flying for 161.3 seconds.

Perseverance has been making serious tracks on its drive to the delta, and Ingenuity needs to keep up.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/where-is-the-rover/

Same image at smaller scale showing full delta.

The delta is the delta of Neretva Vallis.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220401122138.htm

NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been surveying the surface of Mars since February 2021, has recorded the acoustic environment of the Red Planet.

an analysis of these sounds, which were obtained using the SuperCam instrument built in France under the authority of the French space agency CNES. Their findings are published on 1st April 2022 in Nature

Perseverance first recorded sounds from the Red Planet on February 19, 2021, the day after its arrival. These sounds fall within the human audible spectrum, between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. First of all, they reveal that Mars is quiet, in fact so quiet that on several occasions the scientists thought the microphone was no longer working. It is obvious that, apart from the wind, natural sound sources are rare.

In addition to this investigation, the scientists focused on the sounds generated by the rover itself, including the shock waves produced by the impact of the SuperCam laser on rocks, and flights by the Ingenuity helicopter. The microphone also acts as a stethoscope for the rover since it provides an acoustic diagnosis of its health. By studying the propagation on Mars of these sounds, whose behaviour is very well well understood on Earth, they were able to accurately characterise the acoustic properties of the Martian atmosphere.

The researchers show that the speed of sound is lower on Mars than on Earth: 240 m/s, as compared to 340 m/s on our planet. However, the most surprising thing is that it turns out that there are actually two speeds of sound on Mars, one for high-pitched sounds and one for low frequencies. Approximately 240 m/s for frequencies below 240 Hz, and 250 m/s above. Sound attenuation is greater on Mars than on Earth, especially for high frequencies. All these various factors would make it difficult for two people standing only five metres apart to have a conversation.

After one year of the mission, a total of only five hours of recordings of the acoustic environment have been obtained.

dv said:

Bubblecar said:

…in this latest panorama from Perseverance.

Blue stones and sand pyramids, endless fields of dust.

Something like some parts of Earth but….these are places in which no living being has ever trod.

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/26616/perseverance-looks-toward-santa-cruz/

Quite lovely

Having a lovely time, wish you were here.

PermeateFree said:

Having a lovely time, wish you were here.

Me?

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/multimedia/images/

InSight lander on Mars is up to 6,513 images so far.

InSight Captures a Martian Sunrise and Sunset

https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/

Curiosity Rover on Mars is up to 918,026 images so far.

A postcard from Curiosity.

To avoid these patches of knife-edged rocks, the mission has taken an alternative path up Mount Sharp. :-(

Curiosity finds complex carbon-containing molecules on Mars. On Earth, these would be taken as signatures of biological origins.

https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9113/nasas-curiosity-rover-measures-intriguing-carbon-signature-on-mars/?site=msl

NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists have announced that several of the samples are rich in a type of carbon that on Earth is associated with biological processes.

an international team of Curiosity scientists in the detection of myriad organic molecules – ones that contain carbon – on the Martian surface.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finds-ancient-organic-material-mysterious-methane-on-mars

Finding Organic Molecules

To identify organic material in the Martian soil, Curiosity drilled into sedimentary rocks known as mudstone from four areas in Gale Crater. This mudstone gradually formed billions of years ago from silt that accumulated at the bottom of the ancient lake. The rock samples were analyzed by SAM, which uses an oven to heat the samples (in excess of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, or 500 degrees Celsius) to release organic molecules from the powdered rock.

SAM measured small organic molecules that came off the mudstone sample – fragments of larger organic molecules that don’t vaporize easily. Some of these fragments contain sulfur, which could have helped preserve them in the same way sulfur is used to make car tires more durable, according to Eigenbrode.

The results also indicate organic carbon concentrations on the order of 10 parts per million or more. This is close to the amount observed in Martian meteorites and about 100 times greater than prior detections of organic carbon on Mars’ surface. Some of the molecules identified include thiophenes, benzene, toluene, and small carbon chains, such as propane or butene.

In 2013, SAM detected some organic molecules containing chlorine in rocks at the deepest point in the crater. This new discovery builds on the inventory of molecules detected in the ancient lake sediments on Mars and helps explains why they were preserved.