Curiosity rover – Astronomy Now

The long view across Gale crater to the slopes of Mount Sharp

30 June 2022 Keith Cooper

This panorama was taken by the rover’s MastCam – from a ‘clay-bearing unit’ on the flank of Mount Sharp.

A stunning vista from the Curiosity Mars rover captures changing environment

20 August 2021 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Curiosity rover beams back a stunning panorama from the slopes of Mount Sharp showing signs of transition between past and present environments.

China’s Zhurong Mars rover sends back first pictures

19 May 2021 Astronomy Now

The first images from China’s Zhurong Mars rover show the spacecraft is in good shape after landing on the red planet.

Video provides thrilling bird’s eye view of Mars landing

22 February 2021 Astronomy Now

The Perseverance Mars rover’s thrilling descent to the floor of Jezero Crater was captured in stunning first-of-its-kind video.

Mars rover steers toward active sand dunes

22 November 2015 Stephen Clark

The Curiosity rover’s next destination is a moving mound of wind-blown dark sand blanketing the base of Mount Sharp, the focal point of the Mars mission’s research, scientists said.

Martian valleys could have been carved by surprisingly little water

5 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Vast valley networks on Mars have suggested that water may have flowed there for millions of years. Now a study at Brown University suggests the valleys could have been carved by much less water in as little as a few hundred to 10,000 years. The findings are consistent with the idea that early Mars may have been cold and icy, with surface water flowing sporadically in response to short-term climate changes.

Curiosity rover eyes prominent mineral veins on Mars

2 April 2015 Astronomy Now

Two-tone mineral veins at a site NASA’s Curiosity rover has reached by climbing a layered Martian mountain offer clues about multiple episodes of fluid movement. These episodes occurred later than the wet environmental conditions that formed lake-bed deposits the rover examined at the mountain’s base.

Mars lost an ocean’s worth of water

6 March 2015 Astronomy Now

NASA scientists have determined that a primitive ocean occupying almost half of Mars’ northern hemisphere once held more water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean and that the Red Planet has lost 87% of that water to space.