How much does a solar eclipse dim daylight on Mars?
The animation shows #Curiosity's capture of a solar eclipse by Phobos on March 25, 2019 (Sol 2358). Phobos is small and does not fully cover the disk of the sun, so dimming is noticeable but not comparable to that of a total eclipse on Earth.
#Curiosity is currently doing science in an eerie looking environment up on Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater, where rocks frequently appear having lace-like structures, as the one seen in this image:
A look at a small section of Curiosity's workspace in this composite image assembled from 4 Bayer reconstructed R-MastCam frames that were assembled in MS-ICE. The images are from December 27, 2023 (sol 4049) at site 105/1108 after a short drive/climb a few sols earlier. The rover is located at the head of Gediz Vallis (see map) I've also attached the drive data. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/USGS/fredk)
While #Perseverance seems to be having a good time, like a city dweller strolling in a park, #Curiosity does all the hard climbing, like a true veteran mountaineer that it is. Look at those worn out wheels: one is up in the air, not even touching ground.
One of my favorite photos from the MARDI Marker Band Valley campaign, taken on Sol 3648. We got beautiful lighting during this video sequence, and I really like how this still was framed. #MSL#Curiosity
The #Curiosity rover has been on Mars for more than 4000 sols, and has seen 6 Earth solar conjunctions in the 11+ Earth years of its life on the Red planet. It's still going strong, as is its team, who produce wonderfully detailed reports on what the veteran rover has been or plans to be working on.
Currently assigned target names, like Cobra Turret, Fang Turret, Gorge of Despair, Brittle Bush, come from the area near Bishop, CA.
Il y a 12 ans aujourd'hui j'étais en Floride invitée par la NASA (#NASATweetup) pour voir décoller le rover Curiosity à bord d'une fusée Atlas V. C'était très très chouette !
Hey #NASA, if you are listening 🙂 :
Your RSS feed has a bug: it doesn't escape the text inside the <title> element (maybe others too?), and my Little Assistant complains that it cannot deliver the recent #MSL update.
EDIT: Actually, there are more texts that are not escaped inside a CDATA section:
• <title>
• <media:title>
• <media:description>
Note: Mars solar conjunction, i.e. the Sun goes between the Earth and Mars, starts 2 weeks from now, and there will be little to no activity for about 10-14 days.
Burning Man?
No, no. Not after this year's adventures. It's Burnt Mountain where #Curiosity is driving through, at present. That, and Bearpaw Meadow, are idyllic places in Gale Crater. For rovers 😬