Amazing space image shows route of Mars rover as it treks across the Red Planet
The 2,000-pound Mars rover is shown as a dark speck in the bottom center of the picture frame. It leads a long, thin trail of its tracks that stretches 1,050 feet.
The space agency said in a statement that Curiosity's tracks are likely to last there for months before the strong Martian wind erases them.
The line shows the progress Curiosity has made since it arrived on Mars in August of 2012.
The photo was taken using the orbiter's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which snaps an image with the majority of the scene in black and white, and a strip of color down the middle to ensure the best spatial resolution.
'By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,' Doug Ellison, Curiosity's planning team chief, noted in a statement.
Curiosity is seen moving toward the base of a steep slope, and has since ascended it.
The orbiter reached Mars orbit in March 2006. It snapped this scene on February 28, or the 4,466th Martian day of the rover's mission.
While the camera has captured Curiosity in color before, the rover happened to fall within the black and white part of the image this time around.
Earlier in the month, the rover began the first of roughly 11 drives, as it slowly trekked from the Gediz Vallis channel to its next stop.
The rover is heading to an area with potential boxwork formations, possibly made by ancient groundwater billions of years ago.
The boxwork pattern is a weblike form of ridges that were captured by NASA's orbiter nearly 20 years ago.
When exactly Curiosity will get there depends on several factors, including how its software navigates the surface and how challenging the terrain is to climb. It's expected, however, to reach the new science location within a month.
'Engineers at NASA's Southern California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory work with scientists to plan each day's trek,' NASA said.
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Scottish Sun
19 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
I'm a top astrobiologist – here's why I am convinced aliens DID live on Mars…and they could have been smarter than us
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ASTRONAUTS visiting Mars could unearth a museum of alien fossils that may have belonged to an intelligent civilisation. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe backed NASA's plan to send humans to Mars in the 2030s and Elon Musk's bid to colonise the planet. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe believes astronauts could unearth alien fossils on Mars Credit: Wikipedia 5 Mars, known as the Red Planet, could have been a 'green planet', an astrobiologist has argued Credit: Alamy 5 Depiction of Earth as viewed from the surface of Mars Credit: Getty The Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology astrobiologist thinks alien life 'unquestionably' existed on the Red Planet. And he's even suggested explorers could unearth fossils pointing to alien life, possibly more intelligent than us. Prof Wickramasinghe told The Sun: 'I think it is entirely plausible that Mars, sometime in the past, was a green planet full of life. 'Then something happened that made it a virtually dead planet or nearly a dead planet. 'This could have happened after impact. An episode of comet asteroid impacts could have destroyed all life that existed on it if it did exist on Mars. It could have destroyed it just as on the Earth. 'If there was a huge protracted episode of asteroid comet impacts, then this planet would be a dead planet. 'The fact that Mars and Earth are very similar, geologically very similar, have seasons and they have very similar patterns of oscillation of temperature and so on makes it entirely possible that, in the past, Mars was the home of life. 'I don't rule out intelligent life. He added: 'I think astronauts will explore all those fossils discussed by Barry DiGregorio, examine them more carefully and decide whether they're artifacts or real fossils. 'They would encounter bacteria and I think they would find a planet that is very easy to terraform, to make it a living planet like the earth. Hidden ocean on Mars found that 'could cover entire planet with a mile of water' and 'should be able to sustain life' 'If you go with enough resources, you could build houses and build a civilisation on Mars, and I don't think that's impossible. 'I can't rule out an intelligent civilisation.' Asked what that life may have looked like, he said: "It's speculation. It could have been as intelligent as you or I or maybe even more intelligent. "Who knows? I think evidence has been virtually stamped out of existence possibly through an impact episode, if it did exist." DiGregorio had claimed alien fossils had been discovered by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2018. He accused NASA of failing to investigate properly so it could boost publicity for a manned mission to Mars. 5 An image of unusual formations found on Mars by Nasa's Curiosity rover in 2018 Credit: x/@marscuriosity 5 NASA said it believed the images likely showed signs of crystal growth, not alien fossils. Billionaire Musk has long signalled his intent to colonise Mars through his SpaceX company. Last year, the X owner even suggested humans could land there in four years and be living in a self-sustaining city in 20. NASA says on its website it intends to send humans to Mars in the 1930s. In 1976, NASA landed two Viking landers on Mars. NASA scientist Gilbert Levin ran an experiment to test the soil and concluded there were positive signs of life through the presence of radioactive gas. NASA and its other scientists disagreed, and separate experiments from Viking concluded the soil did not show signs of life. But Levin spent the rest of his life claiming he'd found signs of alien life until his death in 2021. Prof Wickramasinghe said: 'We have unquestionably found microbial life on Mars, the most secure discovery was the Gilbert Levin discovery in the 1970s when they did the Viking land experiments.' NASA's mission to Mars NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. The space company has been working to advance its technologies in a bid to send a human crew to the Red Planet. It would take astronauts up to nine months to reach Mars - which even at its closest is 33.9 million miles away. Astronauts could then spend up to 500 days on the planet's surface before returning to Earth - which would take another nine months. The crew would spend their time on the planet collecting data and assessing the planetary alignment that would allow the spacecraft to land and depart from Mars on the same orbit. Last year, the agency completed a year-long simulated mission that saw four crew members out in a replica habitat in Houston, Texas. They logged 378 days in the 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat called Mars Dune Alpha. He added: 'That result was overwhelmingly positive. They got the result that they wanted. 'So almost immediately Levin, who I'd known for a long time, made the announcement on behalf of NASA that we have discovered life on Mars. 'This was a step too far for the NASA establishment, and they then revoked that statement.' On its website, NASA says: "Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system. "What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth's past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet. "Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth."
The Sun
5 hours ago
- The Sun
I'm a top astrobiologist – here's why I am convinced aliens DID live on Mars…and they could have been smarter than us
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'If there was a huge protracted episode of asteroid comet impacts, then this planet would be a dead planet. 'The fact that Mars and Earth are very similar, geologically very similar, have seasons and they have very similar patterns of oscillation of temperature and so on makes it entirely possible that, in the past, Mars was the home of life. 'I don't rule out intelligent life. He added: 'I think astronauts will explore all those fossils discussed by Barry DiGregorio, examine them more carefully and decide whether they're artifacts or real fossils. 'They would encounter bacteria and I think they would find a planet that is very easy to terraform, to make it a living planet like the earth. Hidden ocean on Mars found that 'could cover entire planet with a mile of water' and 'should be able to sustain life' 'If you go with enough resources, you could build houses and build a civilisation on Mars, and I don't think that's impossible. 'I can't rule out an intelligent civilisation.' Asked what that life may have looked like, he said: "It's speculation. It could have been as intelligent as you or I or maybe even more intelligent. "Who knows? I think evidence has been virtually stamped out of existence possibly through an impact episode, if it did exist." DiGregorio had claimed alien fossils had been discovered by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2018. He accused NASA of failing to investigate properly so it could boost publicity for a manned mission to Mars. 5 5 NASA said it believed the images likely showed signs of crystal growth, not alien fossils. Billionaire Musk has long signalled his intent to colonise Mars through his SpaceX company. Last year, the X owner even suggested humans could land there in four years and be living in a self-sustaining city in 20. NASA says on its website it intends to send humans to Mars in the 1930s. In 1976, NASA landed two Viking landers on Mars. NASA scientist Gilbert Levin ran an experiment to test the soil and concluded there were positive signs of life through the presence of radioactive gas. NASA and its other scientists disagreed, and separate experiments from Viking concluded the soil did not show signs of life. But Levin spent the rest of his life claiming he'd found signs of alien life until his death in 2021. Prof Wickramasinghe said: 'We have unquestionably found microbial life on Mars, the most secure discovery was the Gilbert Levin discovery in the 1970s when they did the Viking land experiments.' NASA's mission to Mars NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. The space company has been working to advance its technologies in a bid to send a human crew to the Red Planet. It would take astronauts up to nine months to reach Mars - which even at its closest is 33.9 million miles away. 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On its website, NASA says: "Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system. "What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth's past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet. "Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth." Mars facts Here's what you need to know about the red planet... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun It is named after the Roman god of war The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth, but due to the difference in gravity, you could jump three times higher there than you can here. Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest Mars is considered the second most habitable planet after Earth. 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BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
Harehills children's questions inspire Leeds exhibition about poo
Questions from primary school children, such as "Why is poo so smelly?", have formed the basis of a medical the artefacts in POO! at the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds are faeces encased in resin on loan from the National Poo Museum. Curator Jack Gann said the children asked some surprising questions, such as "Why is it called poo?" and "Does poo go mouldy?"He said: "These are all things that I don't know. So we had to go to scientists and historians." Mr Gann added: "The children were much more curious than we thought. "People might feel uncomfortable asking some of these questions, but they're not silly questions."I was really pleased the children felt increasingly free to throw out big questions and that curiosity is what we're looking to in our audience and what we hope that exhibitions like this reward."It's not just us telling them what to think. It's them asking questions and searching for answers." The exhibition also features a 12th Century Medieval poo, a proctogram chair -designed for inspecting the rectum - and Victorian constipation was curated with children from Harehills Primary School, one of nine local schools the Thackray works in partnership questions the children posed included: 'Why is a fart colourless?', "How do you get constipated?" and "why is poo brown?"Mr Gann said the "why is poo so smelly?" question inspired his favourite item in the said: "Skatole, which is the chemical component that makes poo smell, is obviously a nasty smell when you get it in poo, but in a different amount it's actually very pleasant."It's in a lot of flowers and perfumes. So because we have collections that touch on that we can display some things that smell of poo but smell good."One of the objects on display is the anointing oil that's used at the Royal Coronation, which is full of those floral ingredients, which all have skatole as a chemical compound in them."So we get to ask: does this smell of poo, does it make the King smell of poo?" He added another recurring theme among the children was "Why is poo disgusting?", something the team had to ask historians to look into."We talked to a couple of different historians about this, about how it's not necessarily disgusting in every culture, how you're not born naturally finding it disgusting."That's kind of a learned thing that we do socially, because obviously it carries a lot of disease. So you learn that that's probably not a thing you want to put in your mouth."'POO!' runs at the Thackray Museum of Medicine from 26 July to 4 January 2026. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
