TerraSabaea

TerraSabaea, 3 months ago to random

I was interviewed for an article on a new paper in Nature Geoscience that I'm on! Come read about an exciting form of pre-plate tectonic landscape formation on Mars!

Article: https://www.space.com/mars-volcanically-active-4-billion-years-search-for-life

Open-Access Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02191-7

TerraSabaea, 5 months ago to random

#LPSC2024 Haiku
As rover wheels turn, // MARDI sees the landscape pass. // Rocks crowd the window.

TerraSabaea, 5 months ago to Kurzgesagt

#Curiosity is currently pulling a big wheelie on #Mars, and the drive on Sol 4041 to get a wheel back on solid ground faulted out after moving only a short distance. MARDI is helping turn lemons into lemonade, as the limited motion provided just enough offset for a stereo image. Here's a red-blue anaglyph of the ground under the rover processed from the publicly available raw imaging.

TerraSabaea, 5 months ago to Kurzgesagt

Started work on my abstract for #LPSC2024 today! I've been slowly mosaicking frames from the MARDI drive videos #Curiosity collected while exploring #MarkerBandValley. Once they're georeferenced, I hope they'll be of major use to scientists working to piece together the environmental transitions taking place on Mars when the Marker Band was deposited! Here's a roughly 4 m x 1 m segment of the drive performed on Sol 3648 (November 10, 2022).

markmccaughrean, 5 months ago to random

A sad day ahead.

In the UK for the funeral of my middle brother, Ian, who has died from cancer.

A talented painter, cartoonist, concept artist, & storyboard designer for games & film, gone far too soon at just sixty.

Ad astra, my brother.

Ian McCaughrean 1963–2023

TerraSabaea, 5 months ago to Kurzgesagt

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

TerraSabaea, 6 months ago to random

Mars' Tharsis volcanoes and the Valles Marineris canyon system, imaged by #MarsExpressHRSC on August 1, 2023. This image, taken shortly after the northern hemisphere's summer solstice, captures the planet's aphelion cloud belt near its peak development. The cloud belt's formation is driven by cooler atmospheric temperatures around aphelion, which lowers the altitude at which water ice can condense to levels of the atmosphere where water vapor is more abundant.

TerraSabaea, 7 months ago to random

Olympus Mons at dawn, imaged by #MarsExpressHRSC on December 10, 2022. This photo was taken around the time of the Martian spring equinox. Haze and clouds (likely water ice) swaddle the landscape due to the cold atmospheric temperatures, and will quickly burn off during the early morning hours.

TerraSabaea, 9 months ago to random

Long COVID update: the physical fatigue is starting to ease up, but my leg muscles have detoned a lot. Brain fog still terrible, had a ringing migraine headache just about every afternoon, still got maybe only two hours of solid concentration every day. Really don't know where July went.

TerraSabaea, 1 year ago to random

There are some days on #Mars where #Curiosity has more geology to look at in #GaleCrater to see than we have time for dedicated imaging. Sol 3812 (April 26, 2023) was one of those days. Rather than miss out, we prioritized a mosaic with the wide-angle camera on #Mastcam to capture a ~100 degree swath of landscape. The results were lovely!

TerraSabaea, 1 year ago to random

I think getting in the habit of writing image alt texts has made me a better, more observant scientist.

Looking for ways to meaningfully describe something to a person who can't see it means understanding the important details, their relationships to one another, and packaging those in a way that makes sense.

Very much the same skill set needed for image analysis and outcrop interpretation.