Daily Archives: May 13, 2022

Since landing a seismometer on Mars in 2018, scientists have been waiting for a big quake, and now researchers say theyve finally recorded a monster one. NASAs InSight Mars lander detected a magnitude 5 temblor on May 4.

During its few short years on the Martian planet, InSights seismometer has detected more than 1,300 quakes.

Since we set our seismometer down in December 2018, weve been waiting for the big one,'saidBruce Banerdt, InSights principal investigator at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the mission.

A magnitude 5 quake is a medium-size event compared to earthquakes felt on Earth.

Andrew Good also with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that there are similarities with the quakes felt on both Mars and Earth.

The magnitude scale we use for Mars is calibrated to be as equivalent as possible to the seismic movement between Earth and Mars, Good said.

Good and his team says that this is close to what they hoped to see on Mars during Insights mission.

The highly sensitive seismometer was taken to study the planets deep interior.

Scientists say the seismic waves pass through or reflect material in Mars crust, mantle, and core. They change in ways that seismologists can study to determine the depth and composition of these layers. Doing so will help them better understand the formation of all rocky worlds.

This quake is sure to provide a view into the planet like no other. Scientists will be analyzing this data to learn new things about Mars for years to come, Banerdt said.

Even though InSights mission wasextended until the end of the year, NASA says that it is unlikely to continue operations through the extension because of dust accumulation on its solar panels.

Mars is the only planet besides Earth, where NASA has an active seismometer recording quakes.

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Monster quake on Mars to provide view into planet like no other

Nasas Curiosity rover has captured a strange image of a rock formation on Mars that looks like a perfectly carved-out doorway on the Red Planet, sparking alien conspiracy theories.

While Nasa has not yet commented on the image taken by the rovers Mast Camera (Mastcam), the weird rock formation might be the result of a natural stress fracture, likely from seismic activities.

Recordings made by Nasas Insight lander have shown that the Red Planet does experience tremors, with a recently-detected Marsquake found to be the biggest ever observed on the planet.

However, researchers are still working to determine how exactly quakes arise and propagate on Mars.

The door-like rock formation, spotted by Curiosity on the geological feature known as Greenheugh Pediment, may also have arisen from such tremors.

The rock formation was spotted as the rover was ascending Mount Sharp which rises about 5.5km above the floor of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed in August 2012.

As Curiosity was making its way through the terrain, mission engineers observed in March that the path ahead was carpeted with wind-sharpened hard sandstone rocks, which they said could increase wear on the rovers wheels.

They plan to avoid such routes, nicknamed gator-back terrain after their scalelike appearance.

It was obvious from Curiositys photos that this would not be good for our wheels. It would be slow going, and we wouldnt have been able to implement rover-driving best practices, Curiosity project manager Megan Lin of Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US, said last month.

This is also not the first time such weird rock formations have been observed in the solar system.

Last year, Chinas Yutu 2 rover spotted a strange cube-shaped formation on the moon that seemed unusually symmetrical with a flat top.

Researchers with CNSAs outreach program Our Space joked that it might be an alien hut.

Then as the rover got closer to the structure earlier this year, new images revealed that the object is actually a small lumpy rock sitting on the edge of a crater.

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The Yutu 2 team nicknamed the rock jade rabbit after its shape.

Many ascribe otherworldly explanations to such rock formations, but Michael Shermer, American historian of science and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, calls this behaviour patternicity, or the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.

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Nasa rover spots strange rock formation that looks like alien doorway ...

A photograph captured by NASAs Mars Curiosity Rover on May 7, 2022, showed a portal and a wall nearby that looks artificial.

While the image in question was an authentic photo captured by a camera aboard the NASA Curiosity rover on May 7, 2022, the agencys Jet Propulsion Laboratory told Snopes that, what some social media users interpreted to be a portal and a wall, was actually a rock crevice on the red planet.

A popular May 2022 post on Reddit that claimed NASAs Mars Curiosity rover captured a photograph of an alleged portal and a wall nearby that looks artificial on the red planet was as incredulous as it seemed.

That was because while something depicted in the grainy, black-and-white version of the photograph taken by a camera aboard the rover could be interpreted to resemble the shape of a door, the agencys Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) told Snopes that it actually was a very, very, very zoomed in shot of a tiny crevice in a rock.

The teams scientists underlined just how small [the crevice] is: roughly 30 centimeters wide and 45 centimeters across (11 by 17 inches), a JPL spokesperson said via email. They said there are linear fractures throughout this outcrop, and this is a location where several linear fractures happen to intersect.

The photograph was taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) outfitted aboard Curiosity, a system that uses fixed-focal length, multispectral imagers to capture true color images of the red planet and beyond. The door image was captured on May 7, 2022, which is also Sol 3466 the 3,466th solar day on Mars, or a Mars-day.

NASA media relations team also referred us to a publicly available, digital mosaic of photos that the rover also captured. Neville Thompson, who is not affiliated with NASA, created the piece, which showed contents of the in-question image within the broader marscape.

The tiny door (crevice) can be seen roughly dead center, up a little, and a bit to the left.

See it? You can zoom in with the +/- on the right side of the screen. Its very small and looks like a crevice in the rock, the spokesperson wrote.

While we cant say for certain whether Martians indeed used itty-bitty, little doors, NASA was sure that the door in this instance was just a small rock crevice. So, while the Reddit post displayed an authentic photo captured by NASAs Mars Curiosity rover, the photo did not show either a portal or an artificial wall. As such, we rated this claim as False.

Want more fact checks about weird and wacky Mars rumors? Check out these:

Sources

Bell III, James F., et al. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Mastcam Instruments: Preflight and in-Flight Calibration, Validation, and Data Archiving. Earth and Space Science, vol. 4, no. 7, 2017, p. 396452. pubs.er.usgs.gov, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EA000219.

Does This Photo Show a Hole Drilled on Mars? Snopes.Com, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/photo-hole-drilled-on-mars/. Accessed 11 May 2022.

kinger90210. NEW: 2022-05-07 A Formation on Mars Which Appears to Be a Portal and a Wall Nearby That Looks Artifical. Image Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Mars Rover. R/Interestingasfuck, 11 May 2022, http://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/umyqdy/new_20220507_a_formation_on_mars_which_appears_to/.

mars.nasa.gov. Sol 3466: Mast Camera (Mastcam). NASA Mars Exploration, https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1064629. Accessed 11 May 2022.

MSL 3466 MR. http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/229311/. Accessed 11 May 2022.

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Does This NASA Photo Show a Portal and Wall on Mars?

NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars shows an unusual structure in the rocks that looks like an alien doorway.

One of the most recent images captured by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Curiosity rover on Mars shows an unusual structure in the rocks that looks like a neatly carved out doorway nestled on the Red Planet. Many internet users are puzzled by the photograph, claiming it to be a hidden alien entrance.

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The image was captured at a geological feature known as Greenheugh Pediment, by the Curiosity rover on May 7 and shared on Reddit by NASA on Wednesday.

While NASA has not yet commented on the image, publications like The Independent have said that tthe strange rock formation could be the product of a natural stress fracture caused by a seismic activity.

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Hmm looks like they just had a spot of rain on Sol 3466, a user commented on the post shared.

Others wondered if there could be water seen in the image. There is water on the right side of the image or am I wrong, a second user commented.The largest temblor ever recorded on Mars occurred on May 4 of this year, and scientists are still trying to figure out where it occurred and what caused it.

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NASA has posted some very bizarre and fascinating images of Mars in recent years, which include craters filled with ice, strange chevron-shaped rock formations, hollowed-out mountains, and plenty more.

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NASA Rover Spots Strange Rock Formation On Mars, Sets Internet Abuzz

A screen broadcasts a CCTV state media news bulletin, showing an image of Mars taken by Chinese Mars rover Zhurong as part of the Tianwen-1 mission, in Beijing, China, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo/File Photo

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BEIJING, May 12 (Reuters) - Hydrated minerals discovered by China's robotic rover on Mars in a vast basin believed to be the site of an ancient ocean suggest water was present on the planet's surface for longer than previously thought, said Chinese scientists.

According to an analysis of data sent back by the rover, Zhurong, signs of water were detected in sampled minerals from just 700 million years ago, the scientists said in a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

Mars is believed to have been wet until about 3 billion years ago, when the planet's second geological age, known as the Hesperian Epoch, ended. In the current Amazonian period, there is no surface water.

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The soil containing the minerals Zhurong sampled had a hard crust that could have been formed by rising ground water or melted ice that had since evaporated, the Chinese scientists wrote.

The Chinese rover has been exploring the vast plain of Utopia Planitia since its landing on the planet in May last year. Zhurong has travelled about 2 kilometres from its landing site as it gathers data on the terrain. read more

In recent years, data from an orbiting probe operated by the European Space Agency had discovered water under the ice of the planet's south pole.

Almost all of the water on Mars is locked in its polar ice caps, with very small traces in the planet's thin atmosphere.

Locating subsurface water is key to determining the planet's potential for life, as well as providing a permanent resource for any human exploration.

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Reporting by Ryan Woo. Editing by Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Chinese findings on Mars suggest water existed for longer on planet's ...

An image captured by NASA's Curiosity rover has been doing the rounds on social media and has piqued the interest of the public. At first glance, the image seems to show a doorway and the surroundings look like a wall. So, have we found something on Mars? Let's find out.

The image was captured by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity which made its way to the Red Planet in 2012. On its mission day Sol 3466, the rover's mast camera (Mastcam) captured the image, which was later shared by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), just the way it does with all other images, it receives from the over.

When there is something so intriguing in an image, one definitely wants to know where it was shot. Curiosity is currently near Mount Sharp not very far from the Gale Crater, where it landed way back in 2012.

Mount Sharp has an elevation of 18,000 feet (5,486 m) and Curiosity has been carefully surveying the mountain and its surroundings as part of its preparations to scale it, Vice reported.

Yes, you read it right. A man-made rover on another planet, trying to scale one of the mountains there. That's what Curiosity is.

The image is one of the many images that the rover has been taking as part of its preparation to understand the mountainous surface better.

Of course not. What has been shared on social media is one of the highly zoomed-in images of the terrain that the rover has taken and uses it with other such zoomed-in images to stitch together a high-definition mosaic of the terrain.

A JPL spokesperson told Snopes in an email that what appears like a doorway is actually a crevice on a Martian rock. By their estimates, the crevice is about approximately 11 inches wide and 17 inches across (30 cm X 45 cm), rather small for a doorway.

The artificial wall is just linear fractures on the surface and not the creation of an alien life form.

So, while the image is not fake, it cannot be taken at face value either.

The next thing we can get excited about is when Curiosity scales the Martian mountain.

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Mars doorway: NASA image shows a doorway on Mars. Is that real? - Interesting Engineering

Evidence is growing that Mars, now cold and dry, had liquid water running on its surface much more recently than previously thought.

Scientists have long believed that Mars was wet around 3 billion years ago, during the planet's Hesperian period, then lost much of its water. But the a new study presents evidence of water activity from just 700 million years ago, well into the current Amazonian period, posing a new puzzle to crack about the Red Planet and its history.

The new study is based on data from China's Zhurong rover, which is part of the Tianwen-1 mission and touched down on the surface of Mars in May 2021. In particular, the scientists used data the rover gathered during its first 92 Martian days, or sols, at its landing site in Utopia Planitia. Yang Liu, a researcher at the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and colleagues analyzed data from three different instruments on Zhurong: the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer (MarSCoDe), the telescopic microimaging camera and the short-wave infrared spectrometer.

Related: China's Mars rover Zhurong is hunkering down for its 1st Red Planet winter

Those instruments studied minerals that, according to the team, suggest the presence of a substantial quantity of liquid water at the site about 700 million years ago, well into the current Amazonian epoch, which scientists previously thought was dry.

"This is a very interesting result," says Eva Scheller, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology who wasn't involved in the new research. "We have very few recorded evidences of 'young' liquid water systems on Mars. And for the ones we have, they were usually in the form of salt minerals."

But Zhurong's instruments spotted water molecules locked away in the rock, "which is very interesting and different from other young liquid water environments that have been observed," Scheller said. "It means that particular forms of water-bearing minerals would have formed at much later time periods than have previously been considered in other scientific studies."

NASA has sent its Mars rovers to ancient landing sites, dating back to the Noachian age more than 3.7 billion years ago. Zhurong, then, is not just an extra set of wheels on Mars, but a powerful suite of instruments exploring a new, geologically young site to open new windows of opportunity for research on Mars.

"One of the major things we'll have to find out and that I look forward to seeing from the Zhurong rover is how extensive these 'young' water-bearing minerals are," Scheller said. "Are they common or uncommon in these 'young' rocks?"

Zhurong has now covered about 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) during its more than 350 Martian days, and has analyzed a range of features on its travels, meaning more new Martian insights are likely still to come from the rover.

The results are described in a paper published Wednesday (May 11) in the journal Science Advances.

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Water may have been on Mars much more recently than scientists thought, China's rover suggests - Space.com

A magnitude 5 quake shook the surface of Mars on May 4, the strongest temblor ever detected not only on Mars but on any planet besides Earth.

The marsquake, detected by NASA's InSight lander, surpassed the previous record-holder, a 4.2-magnitude quake that took place in August 2021.

"NASA InSight's team & partners just received prelim data from Mars on what's believed to be the largest seismic activity ever recorded on another planet!" NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen said on Twitter. "Preliminary estimate: Magnitude 5 event. Must be patient as teams analyze the data."

In Earth terms, a magnitude 5 earthquake would be no big deal. On our planet, such earthquakes occur half a million times per year and rarely cause serious damage. (They may throw stuff off shelves and make windows crack, according to Los Angeles Times, and would wake you up at night).

Mars, however, is tectonically much more peaceful, and magnitude 5 is about as powerful a quake as scientists hoped for when they sent InSight to the Red Planet in 2018.

Related: Marsquakes reveal Red Planet has surprisingly large core, thin crust

"Since we set our seismometer down in December 2018, we've been waiting for 'the big one,'" Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which leads the mission, said in a statement. "This quake is sure to provide a view into the planet like no other."

The team still knows very little about the record-breaking marsquake and will have to analyze the data to determine its location and source.

InSight landed in the Elysium Planitia, a broad plain straddling the planet's equator, on Nov. 26, 2018, and is fitted with a highly sensitive seismometer built by the French space agency CNES. The instrument allows geologists to remotely peek inside the planet's interior by detecting and analyzing seismic waves passing through the geological layers of Mars. By comparing what they see on the Red Planet with what they know about the behavior of seismic waves on Earth, the geologists can determine the depth and composition of these layers: the crust, mantle and core.

In its nearly 1,300 days on Mars, InSight has detected more than 1,313 marsquakes. The lander's primary mission officially ended in 2020, but NASA has since continued the mission.

However, the lander is having trouble harvesting enough solar power to continue operations. Because of seasonal weather patterns, the amount of dust in the air has increased dramatically since InSight's arrival, obscuring the sun.

A local dust storm back in January sent the spacecraft into safe mode and raised concerns about how long the mission could continue. And just a few days after its new powerful find, on May 7, the spacecraft again hit perilously low levels of power.

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NASA's InSight lander detects the biggest quake on Mars yet - Space.com

China's Zhurong Mars rover is adjusting to its first winter on the Red Planet while its companion orbiter continues to map the world from above.

Zhurong, part of China's Tianwen-1 mission, has been operating in the vast basin of Utopia Planitia for 347 Martian days, or sols, and has traveled 6,302 feet (1,921 meters) across the planet's surface, according to a May 6 update posted by the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.

However, the rover is now receiving lower amounts of energy from the sun as winter takes hold in Mars' northern hemisphere.

Related: See a sunrise on Mars in this stunning view from NASA's InSight lander (photo)

To compensate, the Zhurong engineering team has adjusted the angle of the solar wings for maximum sun exposure and reduced the working hours of the spacecraft to control its energy usage.

Zhurong has an automated sleep mode which will kick in if energy levels fall below a set point, triggering hibernation until environmental conditions improve. The coldest period for Zhurong is expected to occur in July.

But for now, the rover's work continues. A new image from Zhurong's navigation and terrain camera reveals rocks disturbed by a meteor impact.

Meanwhile, in orbit, the Tianwen 1 spacecraft that carried Zhurong on the seven-month journey from Earth to Mars has continued its work from above.

That work has included capturing stunning images of the Red Planet. The orbiter's medium-resolution camera captured an image of Valles Marineris on April 1, while the high-resolution camera imaged Triolet Crater on April 17.

Tianwen 1 initially acted mainly as a relay satellite for Zhurong roving operations but has since focused on its own science objectives.

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China's Mars rover Zhurong is hunkering down for its 1st Red Planet winter - Space.com