Mars rover 'Opportunity' has indeed knocked on to some rocks that point to another water-realted event on Mars.
The rover was backing away from potentially treacherous, sandy terrain at the
bottom of Endurance Crater when its cameras came across "Escher," an oddly cracked rock that researchers said may have fractured after being soaked during some sort of water event. But more evidence is needed to be sure."There may have been some frost, some water present, but it's not a definite result,"
said Steve Squyres, the rover mission's principal investigator, adding that some follow up observations at a rock called "Wopmay" may shed more light. "Our hope is that it will reveal more to us about the possibility of a secondary water episode."If verified, it would point to a secondary water episode that occurred after Endurance Crater formed on the plains of Meridiani Planum, Opportunity's landing site.
Now in 'over-time', both 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity' are proving to be very useful beyond their scheduled lifespan.
Having said that 'Spirit' is having steering problems.
The robot's right-front and left-rear wheels "did not operate as commanded" on the first day of the month, the space agency said in a statement. Engineers are investigating possible causes and remedies, which might include disabling the brakes on the two wheels so the craft can proceed with its mission in a hampered fashion. Separate relay switches for steering actuators -- small motors that control the steering to each of the two wheels -- are affected. The wheels turn independently, and the steering setup works separate from the motor that makes the wheels roll.
When the actuators are not in use, electric relays are closed and the motor acts as a brake to prevent unintended changes in direction, according to the statement. Diagnostic tests were performed and the results were beamed back to Earth yesterday.
"We are interpreting the data and planning additional tests," said Rick Welch, rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We hope to determine the best work-around if the problem does persist."
Super Nova Imaging
Here's an interesting article about imaging Super Novas.
The infrared and X-ray data -- invisible to the eye -- have been colorized to make the image useful to astronomers.
"Multiwavelength studies are absolutely essential for putting together a complete picture of how supernova remnants evolve," said Ravi Sankrit of Johns Hopkins University. Visible light is shown as yellow, revealing where the supernova shock wave is slamming into the densest regions of surrounding gas. Bright knots are thick clumps of material caused by instabilities that form behind the shock wave, researchers say. Thin filaments show where the shock wave passes through interstellar material that is more uniformly distributed and of lower density.
Infrared data, in red, shows microscopic dust particles that have been heated by the
shock wave. Blue areas are X-rays that come from very hot gas or extremely high-energy particles squeezed into action. Green represents lower-energy X-rays from cooler gas."When the analysis is complete, we will be able to answer several important questions about this enigmatic object," said William Blair, also of Johns Hopkins and co-leader of the study with Sankrit.
- Art Neuro
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