Latest news with #SuperCam
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Was ancient Mars habitable? NASA's Perseverance rover is grinding into a 'weird, uncooperative' rock to find out
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance rover is digging deeper into Mars' geologic past as it begins grinding into Red Planet rock surfaces to expose material that could hold clues to the planet's ancient environment and habitability. Earlier this month, the Perseverance rover used its abrasion tool to scrape away the top layer of a rocky Martian outcrop nicknamed "Kenmore," revealing a fresh surface for close-up analysis of the rock's composition and history. The procedure, which involves a combination of mechanical grinding and gas-blast cleaning, allows scientists to study rock interiors that haven't been altered by wind, radiation or dust over billions of years. "Kenmore was a weird, uncooperative rock," Ken Farley, Perseverance's deputy project scientist, said in a statement. "Visually, it looked fine — the sort of rock we could get a good abrasion on and perhaps, if the science was right, perform a sample collection. But during abrasion, it vibrated all over the place and small chunks broke off. Fortunately, we managed to get just far enough below the surface to move forward with an analysis." The recent abrasion marks a shift in the rover's focus from primarily scouting and sampling to more detailed in-situ science. Compared to its predecessors, Perseverance uses an advanced abrading bit and gaseous Dust Removal Tool, or gDRT, which applies five puffs of nitrogen to clear samples in a way that poses less risk of contamination. For comparison, earlier rovers used a brush instead to sweep debris, or tailings, out of the way. After an abrasion is complete, Perseverance's science instruments are deployed to investigate the exposed rock. The rover's WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) imager snaps close-up photos, while its SuperCam uses laser pulses to analyze the composition of vaporized material with one spectrometer and study visible and infrared light reflected from the freshly exposed surface with another. "The tailings showed us that this rock contains clay minerals, which contain water as hydroxide molecules bound with iron and magnesium — relatively typical of ancient Mars clay minerals." Cathy Quantin-Nataf, SuperCam team member, said in the statement. "The abrasion spectra gave us the chemical composition of the rock, showing enhancements in iron and magnesium." Perseverance also relies on its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instruments to help determine mineral content, chemical composition and potential signs of past water activity or even microbial life. In fact, not only did these tools find further evidence of clay, they also detected feldspar — a mineral common in Earth's crust as well as on the moon and other rocky planets. The team also found, for the first time, manganese hydroxide in the observed specimens. "The data we obtain now from rocks like Kenmore will help future missions so they don't have to think about weird, uncooperative rocks," Farley said. "Instead, they'll have a much better idea whether you can easily drive over it, sample it, separate the hydrogen and oxygen contained inside for fuel, or if it would be suitable to use as construction material for a habitat." The work is being carried out in Mars' Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) basin that once hosted a river delta and lake. Scientists believe the region contains some of the best-preserved records of Mars' wet past, making it a prime location to search for biosignatures, or indicators of ancient life. Kenmore represents the 30th Martian rock that Perseverance has studied in such fine detail. RELATED STORIES — Perseverance rover: Everything you need to know — NASA's Perseverance rover hits the Mars rock gold mine: 'It has been all we had hoped for and more' — Perseverance Mars rover finds 'one-of-a-kind treasure' on Red Planet's Silver Mountain Perseverance is also continuing to collect rock core samples, which are being sealed in tubes and stored for a possible future return to Earth through the planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign — though the Trump administration's recently released FY 2026 NASA budget proposal suggests cutting the MSR program altogether.
GMA Network
17-05-2025
- Science
- GMA Network
NASA rover observes aurora on Mars in visible light for first time
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this snapshot of Mars 11 hours before the planet made its closest approach to Earth on August 26, 2003. REUTERS/J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI)/NASA/File Photo WASHINGTON - NASA's Perseverance rover has observed an aurora on Mars in visible light for the first time, with the sky glowing softly in green in the first viewing of an aurora from any planetary surface other than Earth. Scientists said the aurora occurred on March 18, 2024, when super-energetic particles from the sun encountered the Martian atmosphere, precipitating a reaction that created a faint glow across the entire night sky. Auroras have been observed previously on Mars by satellites from orbit in ultraviolet wavelengths, but not in visible light. The sun three days earlier had unleashed a solar flare and an accompanying coronal mass ejection - a huge explosion of gas and magnetic energy that brings with it large amounts of solar energetic particles - that traveled outward through the solar system. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, following Mercury, Venus and Earth. Scientists had simulated the event in advance and prepared instruments on the rover to be ready to observe the expected aurora. Perseverance has two instruments that are sensitive to wavelengths in the visible range, meaning they detect colors human eyes can see. The researchers used the rover's SuperCam spectrometer instrument to identify exactly the wavelength of the green glow and then used its Mastcam-Z camera to take a snapshot of the softly glowing green sky. An aurora forms on Mars the same way as on Earth, with energetic charged particles colliding with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, exciting them, and causing subatomic particles called electrons to emit light particles called photons. "But on Earth, the charged particles are channeled into the polar regions by our planet's global magnetic field," said Elise Wright Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo's Center for Space Sensors and Systems and lead author of the study published this week in the journal Science Advances. "Mars has no global magnetic field so the charged particles bombarded all of Mars at the same time, which leads to this planet-wide aurora," Knutsen added. The green color occurred because of the interaction between the charged particles from the sun and oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. While auroras can be brilliant, as often seen in Earth's northernmost and southernmost regions, the one observed on Mars was quite faint. "This specific aurora we observed on March 18th of last year would have been too faint for humans to see directly. But if we get a more intense solar storm, it could become bright enough for future astronauts to see. And with a camera, such as an iPhone, you would clearly see it, rather like how an aurora on Earth is always brighter in images than with the naked eye," Knutsen said. This particular event did not impact Earth. All the planets with atmospheres in our solar system experience auroras. "Various types and wavelengths of aurora have been observed previously from Mars-orbiting satellites. All previous observations have been in the UV, but they have had wildly different shapes. From the global, diffuse aurora we observed now, to discrete arcs and patches near the crustal fields (regional magnetic fields) in the south, and large-scale sinuous shapes," Knutsen said. If astronauts from Earth visit Mars and perhaps establish a long-term presence on the planet's surface, they may be treated to a nighttime light show. "During a more intense solar storm, producing a brighter aurora, I think a sky which glows green from horizon to horizon will be eerily beautiful," Knutsen said. "The aurora will appear as a soft green glow covering more or less the whole sky," Knutsen added. "Dust in the lower part of the atmosphere would obscure some of the light towards the horizon, and if you looked straight up it would also be fainter simply because looking at a slant angle will allow you to see through a thicker section of the atmosphere that is emitting the aurora." — Reuters
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
First-Ever Auroras on Mars: Stunning pictures captured by NASA's Perseverance
Image credits: X/@konstructivizm Out of all the planets in the solar system, we have made significant progress in discovering and analysing Mars. The planet, which is 33.9 million miles from Earth, has shown potential signs of ancient life, past water activity, and unique geological discoveries such as elemental sulfur, carbonate minerals and quartz deposits. Now, a rare space weather alignment allowed NASA 's Perseverance rover to capture a glowing streak of green light dazzling above the Jezero crater on Mars. The display was captured on March 22nd, 2024, just some days after a powerful solar eruption struck Mars. It marked the first time an aurora was documented from the surface of another planet. These images confirm long-held predictions about Martian auroras and hint at a spectacle that could possibly rival that of Earth. How were Auroras on Mars captured? On March 15th, 2024, the Sun projected an X-class flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME). Travelling at a speed of millions of kilometres per hour, the plasma cloud carried a swarm of solar energetic particles (SEPs). On Earth, such solar storms create polar auroras by funnelling the charged particles into the global magnetic field. Since Mars lacks such a field, its entire atmosphere glows during such events. NASA X MAVEN Ultraviolet cameras on NASA's MAVEN orbiter had previously shown that SEPs create large, diffuse auroras high above the planet. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Perdagangkan CFD Emas dengan Broker Tepercaya IC Markets Mendaftar Undo Some models predicted that highly intense SEP storms could stimulate oxygen atoms to emit green light at 557.7 nanometres, which is the same wavelength that gives colours to many of Earth's auroras. To catch such a signal, engineers trained two rover instruments: the Mastcam-Z imager and the SuperCam spectrometer. 'This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars's surface,' said Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo and lead author of the study. A perfectly timed moment Image credits: X/@QuibellPaul While SEP storms are common, NASA has to select the right storm that would be creating the auroras. Thus, the space weather specialists at NASA's Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office monitor solar flares and feed them into computer models at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) to predict when an interplanetary shock will sweep past Mars. This alert is shared with missions in orbit and on the surface. 'The trick was to pick a good CME – one that would accelerate and inject many charged particles into Mars's atmosphere,' Knutsen said. Such an alert was shared on March 15 with MAVEN's space-weather lead, Christina Lee, who broadcast a Mars Space Weather Alert Notification to all active spacecraft. First-ever auroras captured on Mars Two days after the CME crashed into Mars, the Perseverance rover trained its cameras on the dark sky. SuperCam's spectrometer registered a crisp spike at 557.7 nm, exactly the wavelength of Earth's auroras, while Mastcam-Z captured faint emerald lights sweeping overhead. Since Mars, unlike Earth, does not have a global field, its lights are more planet-wide than limited to a certain area. "Perseverance's observations of the visible-light aurora confirm a new way to study these phenomena that's complementary to what we can observe with our Mars orbiters,' said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist for the rover. The study was published in Science Advances.
Asharq Al-Awsat
16-05-2025
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
NASA Rover Observes Aurora on Mars in Visible Light for 1st Time
NASA's Perseverance rover has observed an aurora on Mars in visible light for the first time, with the sky glowing softly in green in the first viewing of an aurora from any planetary surface other than Earth. Scientists said the aurora occurred on March 18, 2024, when super-energetic particles from the sun encountered the Martian atmosphere, precipitating a reaction that created a faint glow across the entire night sky. Auroras have been observed previously on Mars by satellites from orbit in ultraviolet wavelengths, but not in visible light. The sun three days earlier had unleashed a solar flare and an accompanying coronal mass ejection - a huge explosion of gas and magnetic energy that brings with it large amounts of solar energetic particles - that traveled outward through the solar system. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, following Mercury, Venus and Earth. Scientists had simulated the event in advance and prepared instruments on the rover to be ready to observe the expected aurora. Perseverance has two instruments that are sensitive to wavelengths in the visible range, meaning they detect colors human eyes can see. The researchers used the rover's SuperCam spectrometer instrument to identify exactly the wavelength of the green glow and then used its Mastcam-Z camera to take a snapshot of the softly glowing green sky. An aurora forms on Mars the same way as on Earth, with energetic charged particles colliding with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, exciting them, and causing subatomic particles called electrons to emit light particles called photons. "But on Earth, the charged particles are channeled into the polar regions by our planet's global magnetic field," said Elise Wright Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo's Center for Space Sensors and Systems and lead author of the study published this week in the journal Science Advances. "Mars has no global magnetic field so the charged particles bombarded all of Mars at the same time, which leads to this planet-wide aurora," Reuters quoted Knutsen as saying. The green color occurred because of the interaction between the charged particles from the sun and oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. While auroras can be brilliant, as often seen in Earth's northernmost and southernmost regions, the one observed on Mars was quite faint. "This specific aurora we observed on March 18th of last year would have been too faint for humans to see directly. But if we get a more intense solar storm, it could become bright enough for future astronauts to see. And with a camera, such as an iPhone, you would clearly see it, rather like how an aurora on Earth is always brighter in images than with the naked eye," Knutsen said. This particular event did not impact Earth. All the planets with atmospheres in our solar system experience auroras. "Various types and wavelengths of aurora have been observed previously from Mars-orbiting satellites. All previous observations have been in the UV, but they have had wildly different shapes. From the global, diffuse aurora we observed now, to discrete arcs and patches near the crustal fields (regional magnetic fields) in the south, and large-scale sinuous shapes," Knutsen said. If astronauts from Earth visit Mars and perhaps establish a long-term presence on the planet's surface, they may be treated to a nighttime light show. "During a more intense solar storm, producing a brighter aurora, I think a sky which glows green from horizon to horizon will be eerily beautiful," Knutsen said. "The aurora will appear as a soft green glow covering more or less the whole sky," Knutsen added. "Dust in the lower part of the atmosphere would obscure some of the light towards the horizon, and if you looked straight up it would also be fainter simply because looking at a slant angle will allow you to see through a thicker section of the atmosphere that is emitting the aurora."
Express Tribune
16-05-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
NASA rover observes aurora on Mars
The first visible-light image of a green aurora on Mars (left), taken by NASA's Perseverance rover, is seen next to a comparison image showing the night sky without the aurora but featuring the Martian moon Deimos (right). PHOTO: REUTERS NASA's Perseverance rover has observed an aurora on Mars in visible light for the first time, with the sky glowing softly in green in the first viewing of an aurora from any planetary surface other than Earth. Scientists said the aurora occurred on March 18, 2024, when super-energetic particles from the sun encountered the Martian atmosphere, precipitating a reaction that created a faint glow across the entire night sky. Auroras have been observed previously on Mars by satellites from orbit in ultraviolet wavelengths, but not in visible light. The sun three days earlier had unleashed a solar flare and an accompanying coronal mass ejection - a huge explosion of gas and magnetic energy that brings with it large amounts of solar energetic particles - that traveled outward through the solar system. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, following Mercury, Venus and Earth. Scientists had simulated the event in advance and prepared instruments on the rover to be ready to observe the expected aurora. Perseverance has two instruments that are sensitive to wavelengths in the visible range, meaning they detect colors human eyes can see. The researchers used the rover's SuperCam spectrometer instrument to identify exactly the wavelength of the green glow and then used its Mastcam-Z camera to take a snapshot of the softly glowing green sky. An aurora forms on Mars the same way as on Earth, with energetic charged particles colliding with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, exciting them, and causing subatomic particles called electrons to emit light particles called photons. "But on Earth, the charged particles are channeled into the polar regions by our planet's global magnetic field," said Elise Wright Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo's Center for Space Sensors and Systems and lead author of the study published this week in the journal Science Advances. "Mars has no global magnetic field so the charged particles bombarded all of Mars at the same time, which leads to this planet-wide aurora," Knutsen added. The green color occurred because of the interaction between the charged particles from the sun and oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. While auroras can be brilliant, as often seen in Earth's northernmost and southernmost regions, the one observed on Mars was quite faint. "This specific aurora we observed on March 18th of last year would have been too faint for humans to see directly.
