Topic: Texas A&M University

NASA’s Curiosity Rover observes Two Solar Eclipses on Mars

April 5, 2019 |

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Pasadena, CA –  When NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover landed in 2012, it brought along eclipse glasses. The solar filters on its Mast Camera (Mastcam) allow it to stare directly at the Sun. Over the past few weeks, Curiosity has been putting them to good use by sending back some spectacular imagery of solar eclipses caused by Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two moons.

Phobos, which is about 7 miles (11.5 kilometers) across, was imaged on March 26th, 2019 (the 2,359th sol, or Martian day, of Curiosity’s mission); Deimos, which is about 1.5 miles (2.3 kilometers) across, was photographed on March 17th, 2019 (Sol 2350).

This images shows the Martian moon Phobos as it crossed in front of the Sun, as seen by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 (Sol 2359). (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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Nashville Sounds start Seven Game Homestand tonight

August 13, 2018 |

Nashville Sounds

Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds Baseball Club returns to First Tennessee Park for a seven-game homestand on Monday, August 13th, 2018. The week-long stay at First Tennessee Park is the penultimate homestand of the 2018 season. 

The Sounds welcome the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, for a four-game series from August 13th-16th before hosting the New Orleans Baby Cakes, the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, for a three-game series from August 17th-19th.

Below is a preview for each game of the homestand:

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope discovers universe expanding faster than expected

June 3, 2016 |

Written by Donna Weaver / Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute

Baltimore, MD – Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the universe is expanding 5 percent to 9 percent faster than expected.

“This surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and don’t emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter and dark radiation,” said study leader and Nobel Laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, Maryland.

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows one of the galaxies in the survey to refine the measurement for how fast the universe expands with time, called the Hubble constant.
(NASA, ESA and A. Riess (STScI/JHU))

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover captures image of Sunset on Mars

May 11, 2015 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – The sun dips to a Martian horizon in a blue-tinged sky in images sent home to Earth this week from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.

Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to record the sunset during an evening of skywatching on April 15th, 2015.

The imaging was done between dust storms, but some dust remained suspended high in the atmosphere. The sunset observations help researchers assess the vertical distribution of dust in the atmosphere.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recorded this view of the sun setting at the close of the mission’s 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15th, 2015), from the rover’s location in Gale Crater. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover captures images of the planet Mercury passing in front of the Sun

June 12, 2014 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has imaged the planet Mercury passing in front of the sun, visible as a faint darkening that moves across the face of the sun.

This is the first transit of the sun by a planet observed from any planet other than Earth, and also the first imaging of Mercury from Mars.

Mercury fills only about one-sixth of one pixel as seen from such great distance, so the darkening does not have a distinct shape, but its position follows Mercury’s expected path based on orbital calculations.

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NASA selects experiments to accompany Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Flight

June 10, 2014 |

Written by Rachel Hoover
NASA’s Ames Research Center

Moffett Field, CA – NASA has selected 12 technology experiments to fly on the first commercial research flight on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.

Through NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, officials have been working with commercial companies, universities and government organizations to coordinate testing of innovative space technologies on research flights through the use of commercial suborbital flight platforms.

Telescopic image of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo during a supersonic test flight in 2013. (Mars Scientific/Clay Center Observatory)

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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captures first ever photo of Asteroids from the surface of Mars

April 25, 2014 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A new image from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta.

These two — the largest and third-largest bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — are the destinations of NASA’s Dawn mission. Dawn orbited Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and is on its way to begin orbiting Ceres next year. Ceres is a dwarf planet, as well as an asteroid.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has caught the first image of asteroids taken from the surface of Mars. The image includes two asteroids, Ceres and Vesta. This version includes Mars’ moon Deimos in a circular, exposure-adjusted inset and square insets at left from other observations the same night.

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NASA’s Hubble, Chandra, NuSTAR and Fermi spacecrafts to observe newly discovered Supernova

January 27, 2014 |

Written by Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – An exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered on January 21st has become the focus of observatories around and above the globe, including several NASA spacecraft. The blast, designated SN 2014J, occurred in the galaxy M82 and lies only about 12 million light-years away.

This makes it the nearest optical supernova in two decades and potentially the closest type Ia supernova to occur during the life of currently operating space missions.

Swift’s UVOT captured the new supernova (circled) in three exposures taken on Jan. 22, 2014. Mid-ultraviolet light is shown in blue, near-UV light in green, and visible light in red. Thick dust in M82 scatters much of the highest-energy light, which is why the supernova appears yellowish here. The image is 17 arcminutes across, or slightly more than half the apparent diameter of a full moon. (NASA/Swift/P. Brown, TAMU)

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity catches images of Mars’ moon Phobos eclipsing the Sun

September 1, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – Images taken with a telephoto-lens camera on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity catch the larger of Mars’ two moons, Phobos, passing directly in front of the sun — the sharpest images of a solar eclipse ever taken at Mars.

Phobos does not fully cover the sun, as seen from the surface of Mars, so the solar eclipse is what’s called a ring, or annular, type. A set of three frames from Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam), taken three seconds apart as Phobos eclipsed the sun here .

This set of three images shows views three seconds apart as the larger of Mars’ two moons, Phobos, passed directly in front of the sun as seen by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. Curiosity photographed this annular, or ring, eclipse with the telephoto-lens camera of the rover’s Mast Camera pair (right Mastcam) on Aug. 17, 2013, the 369th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M Univ.)

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover catches images of Mars’ Moons Phobos, Deimos

August 17, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – The larger of the two moons of Mars, Phobos, passes directly in front of the other, Deimos, in a new series of sky-watching images from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity.

Large craters on Phobos are clearly visible in these images from the surface of Mars. No previous images from missions on the surface caught one moon eclipsing the other.

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