Tag Archives: Mars

ⓜ Curiosity and the Exploration of Mars, II

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This entry is part of 55 in the series And Then I Wrote

And then I wrote… this is the second half of the article I started last week, originally published in Italian in Civiltà Cattolica; this is the original English text. While much has developed since this article was written — see the links inserted here — I think the questions I raised then are still valid, and it’s also fun to see what we were thinking about Mars, almost ten years ago… The confluence of this “Mars life” rock [in 1996] and the popular Pathfinder mission [in 1997] gave both a scientific and political motivation to begin a systematic search for life on Mars. Unlike the previous Viking missions, however, this new program would proceed in a series of smaller steps. Viking’s major mistake had been that its design assumed too much about the sort of life it expected to find and the environment where it expected to find it. It was, in essence, a robot designed to find terrestrial life on Earth; it … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – January 19, 2021

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This entry is part 180 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

I know quite a few astrophotographers! During online meetings of the Warren Astronomical Society, members show astrophotos they’ve recently captured and processed; even their “bad ones” are awe-inspiring! Here’s a beautiful pic by Adrian Bradley: A couple of these astrophotographers regularly livestream their telescope sessions for the public to view: Doug Bock & Dr. Brian Ottum. A few results from the Virtual open house of the Warren Astronomical Society on November 28, 2020NGC 7635 Bubble nebula, M 15 Globular Cluster, M 42 the Orion Nebula, NGC 7380. pic.twitter.com/cXBkgJPdfq — Doug Bock (@Mars_1956) December 1, 2020 All three of these astrophotographers that I just shamelessly plugged helped with the Astronomy at the Beach event last September. Venus appears very low above the southeastern horizon before sunrise – appearing lower each morning. Jupiter and Saturn are now lost in the glare of the Sun. Mercury is visible in the southwestern sky at dusk – appearing slightly higher each evening. Mars appears high … Continue reading →

ⓜ Curiosity and the Exploration of Mars, I

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This entry is part 1 of 55 in the series And Then I Wrote

And then I wrote… On January 12, 2021, the NASA Mars rover Curiosity marked 3000 Martian days on the surface of Mars. In 2012 I was invited to write an article about the exploration of Mars; “Curiosity e l’esplorazione di Marte” appeared in the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica on November 17,2012. Here is the original English version that I submitted to them. As it is more than 5000 words long, I will publish it over two weeks. One cannot make an observation of anything in nature without, in some way, altering the very object we are trying to observe. In quantum physics, we know that if we shine even the tiniest bit of light, a massless photon, onto a particle to determine its position or momentum, the impact of that photon will nudge the particle into a different position with a changed momentum. What we thought we were observing will have become changed by the very fact of us looking at … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – January 12, 2021

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This entry is part 179 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus appears very low above the southeastern horizon before sunrise. Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury continue to form a triple conjunction in the southwestern sky at dusk – Saturn may be a bit difficult to see; Mercury appears slightly higher above the horizon each evening. Mercury appears in the southwestern sky at dusk – the Moon joins Mercury on the evening of Jan 15th. Mars appears high in the southern sky after sunset; the constellations Orion, Taurus and Canis Major appear lower and to the east of Mars. If you look almost straight up at 3:00 AM, you can sky-hop from the Big Dipper to Arcturus and Spica.   The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon occurs on Jan. 13th – the Moon will be hidden in the glare of the Sun. After Jan. 13th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent – visible toward the southwest in early evening. If … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – January 5, 2021

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This entry is part 178 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

For the images in this week’s “In the Sky” post, I turned light pollution off in Stellarium – these images show a multitude of stars you cannot see from an urban or suburban locations. I remember camping at a VERY dark sky location in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and not being able to find any familiar guide stars because there were SO MANY stars! This is one of the best reasons to get away from the city lights, and visit a dark sky location! Mercury is visible low above the southwestern horizon at sunset – appearing a bit higher above the horizon each evening. Jupiter and Saturn are also visible low above the southwestern horizon at sunset – appearing a bit lower each evening. The three planets join to form a triple conjunction on Jan 10th, but it may be a challenge to observe due to the nearness to sunset. Mars appears high in the southwestern sky after sunset, and through … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 22, 2020

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This entry is part 176 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

One of the more positive aspects of 2020 has been several successful sample return missions: the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) HAYABUSA2 mission has successfully returned 5.4 grams of rocks and dust from the asteroid Ryugu, the China National Space Administration’s ChangE5 mission returned 1,731 grams of lunar regolith, and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission’s sample head was overflowing with material taken from the surface of asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx is due back at Earth in 2023. These missions have me seriously excited, and I hope they are the beginning of a near-future filled with sample return missions! After yesterday’s “Great Conjunction,” Jupiter and Saturn will move slightly away from each other every night – they’ll be great observing targets for that new telescope you got for Christmas! When I created this image, I saw a pattern of stars above Jupiter and Saturn that I did not recognize – I clicked on one and found it was a string of #Starlink satellites. Mars, … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 15, 2020

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This entry is part 175 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

Jupiter and Saturn appear in the southwestern sky at dusk, getting closer getting closer to the Dec. 21 conjunction with each passing day! The waxing crescent Moon joins the pair of planets on Dec. 16 & 17. Venus appears in the southeastern predawn sky all week, getting closer to the horizon with each passing day. Mars, Uranus, the Pleiades star cluster and the bright star Aldebaran appear in the east-southeastern sky after sunset this week. The constellation Lyra, with the bright star Vega appear above the western horizon after sunset this week. The Moon is a waxing crescent- visible toward the southwest in early evening. The first quarter Moon occurs on Dec, 21st – visible high in the southern sky in early evening. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 24 2020

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This entry is part 174 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

Jupiter and Saturn appear in the southwestern sky at dusk, getting closer together with each passing evening. Mercury and Venus appear in the east-southeastern predawn sky all week – Mercury may be difficult to spot this week being so near the horizon. Mars appears high in the southeastern sky after sunset – the waxing gibbous Moon appears near Mars on Nov. 25th The constellations Orion and Taurus appear in the eastern sky a few hours after sunset, and move across the southern sky to appear in the western sky before sunrise. The Moon is a waxing gibbous – visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night. The full Moon occurs on Nov. 30th – it rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 17, 2020

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This entry is part 173 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mercury appears with Venus in the eastern predawn sky all week; both planets appear a bit closer to the horizon each morning – by next week, Mercury will be much closer to the horizon. Mars and Uranus continue to appear high in the eastern sky after sunset. If you have a large enough ‘scope, you can see Uranus: This is my shot before scaling it up to the closeup. Uranus is only 15 pixels wide. I took a lot of creative interpretations of the data to get the details you see in the final image, so I would consider it more an artistic rendering than a photo. pic.twitter.com/HbbjhxULFH — Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) November 16, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn continue to appear in the south-southwestern sky at dusk, and setting in the southwest a few hours after sunset; from Nov 17-20, the waxing crescent Moon joins the pair of planets. My wife told me that she had her astronomy students look … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 10, 2020

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This entry is part 172 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mars appears high in the eastern sky after sunset, and it appears high in the southern sky at midnight. Mercury appears with Venus in the eastern predawn sky all week – the planets are joined by the waning crescent Moon on the mornings of Nov. 12th and 13th. The conjunction of the two planets, the Moon and the star Spica on the morning of Nov. 13th is likely to be distracting to drivers travelling eastward – drive safe! Jupiter and Saturn appear in the south-southwestern sky at dusk – still great observing targets, but look quick – you only have a couple hours before they set in the southwest. I was wondering what those 2 stars were I was seeing through the skylight as I was making my coffee at 3:00 AM… “I’ll bet they are Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.” Called it! 🙂 I really miss having people look through my telescope and say “Oh WOW!” or … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 3, 2020

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This entry is part 171 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

The sample head overflowing with bits of asteroid Bennu has been safely stowed in the return capsule of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft – I can stop waving my hands frantically and breathe a bit easier! Now, I have to hurry-up-and-wait for launch windows and the time-consuming interplanetary Hohmann orbital mechanics before that sample is returned to Earth in 2023.Like Douglas Adams said: “Space is Big!” I REALLY want a piece of Bennu; I asked Dolores Hill several questions about a possible privately-funded sample return mission with a larger sample head. Dolores said “A huge sampling head may or may not be helpful. If ours had been too big, it would have made it harder to locate a large enough, safe site. A larger head would be heavier – require more gas to flow through it, etc. But, who knows, the engineers know how to scale up. Almost anything is possible given enough resources. Regarding paying for itself…”In my opinion, it would … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 27, 2020

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This entry is part 170 of 180 in the series In the Sky This Week

I’m a volunteer ambassador for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission – I can not tell you how excited I am about the recent successful, maybe overly successful, sample acquisition from the surface of asteroid Bennu! The sample head is full of rocks an dust, and apparently a large rock has prevented a mylar flap from sealing the sample head, and some smaller rocks are escaping! The sample head should be safely stowed away today  – that can’t happen soon enough for me! The pandemic has prevented me from doing in-person lectures about the mission, but I’ve been covering the mission in these weekly posts, and I was able to book Dolores Hill from the OSIRIS-REx mission to speak at the Astronomy at the Beach event – so I don’t feel too awful about my lack of lecturing… The red giant star Arcturus competes with Venus for the title of “morning star” in the eastern predawn sky … Venus wins! … Continue reading →