Browse All : Mars from 2004

Red rover Goes To Mars-Stude …

A brief compilation of b-rol …

1/8/04

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL …

NASA has selected the scient …

11/22/04

Mars on Earth II

In this second installment o …

6/15/04

The Mars Show

A collection of pans and zoo …

5/15/04

Sedna's Night Sky Location

Title	Sedna's Night Sky Location
Description	This view shows where the newly discovered planet-like body, dubbed "Sedna," would lie in the evening skies at around 8:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on the date its discovery was announced (March 15, 2004). It was located in the constellation of Cetus and formed a triangle with Mars and Venus in the direction of the setting Sun. Sedna is so faint, however, that it can not be seen with the naked eye, or with telescopes typically used by amateur astronomers.

NASA Connect - Personal Satellite Assistant - The Astronaut's Helper

NASA Connect - Personal Sate …

NASA Connect Video containin …

1/22/04

Description	NASA Connect Video containing six segments as described below. NASA Connect Segment exploring the aspects of microgravity and how it affects objects in space. Explores object motion and friction and tests the PSA prototype in accordance with these forces. NASA Connect Segment exploring more aspects of the Personal Satellite Assistant. It explains motion and its relationship with the mass of objects in connection to the PSA. NASA Connect Segment explaining mechanical systems. It also compares and contrasts a mechanical system to the system of the International Space Station and Personal Satellite Assistants. NASA Connect Segment explaining the literary origins of robots. It also explores the development of the robot and how scientists use robots in research and technology. NASA Connect Segment exploring the different types of robots. It also explores robots such as the Mars Rover that scientists at NASA use to explore beyond the Earth. NASA Connect Segment involving students in an activity that investigates volume and surface area in two different cylinders. The video also explains basic mathematical functions to help answer the questions.
Date	1/22/04

NASA Connect - Rocket to The …

NASA Connect video containin …

12/16/04

Description	NASA Connect video containing four segments as described following. First segment of Rocket to the Stars defines work and energy using the concepts of force, motion, distance, mass, height, and gravity. The work and energy segment covers the Gravitational Potential energy,and Kiinetic Energy equations. The Work and Energy segment next provides a problem that involves the calculation of the Kinetic Energy of 2 different rovers on the planet Mars. Second segment of Rocket to the Stars contains a preview of the Program's Hands on Activity which allows students to investigate the relationship between height a marble is released and distance a milk carton will travel once the marble hits the milk carton. Third segment of Rocket to the Stars describes Nuclear Energy and how NASA Scientists will use this energy in space exploration. Fourth segment of Rocket to the Stars describes a new rocket propulsion technology called Variable Specific Impluse Magnetoplasma Rocket or VASIMR for short.
Date	12/16/04

NASA Connect - PSA - Rover and Experimental Robots

NASA Connect - PSA - Rover a …

NASA Connect Segment explori …

1/22/04

Description	NASA Connect Segment exploring the different types of robots. It also explores robots such as the Mars Rover that scientists at NASA use to explore beyond the Earth.
Date	1/22/04

NASA Connect - RTTS - Work a …

First segment of Rocket to t …

12/17/04

Description	First segment of Rocket to the Stars defines work and energy using the concepts of force, motion, distance, mass, height, and gravity. The work and energy segment covers the Gravitational Potential energy,and Kiinetic Energy equations. The Work and Energy segment next provides a problem that involves the calculation of the Kinetic Energy of 2 different rovers on the planet Mars.
Date	12/17/04

NASA SCI Files - Space Innovations and Simulations

NASA SCI Files - Space Innov …

In the fourth segment of the …

9/22/04

Description	In the fourth segment of the Case of the Great Space Exploration the tree house detectives learn about the X-prize competition. The detectives also learn the importance of simulating Space Missions and trips to future destinations such as Mars.
Date	9/22/04

Scrutinizing Titan's Surface

Description	Scrutinizing Titan's Surface
Full Description	The six close-up views of Titan's surface shown here are composed of images acquired by the Cassini spacecraft during flybys in October (see Titan Mosaic: October 2004) and December (see Titan Mosaic: December 2004) of 2004. These close-up views illustrate that a variety of processes have shaped the surface of Titan, just as diverse geologic processes are responsible for what we see on Earth's surface. Image (a) shows a prominent bright-dark boundary near the western edge of the Xanadu region which exhibits a sharp, angular edge between the materials. Three bright, discontinuous circles can be seen (two near the top of the image and another near the lower left). These may be large impact craters, the upper two are approximately 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in diameter and the lower one is approximately 50 kilometers (20 miles) in diameter. Titan's thick atmosphere will screen out small projectiles, but if the surface were as old as Titan itself, it should have many more craters of these sizes. Therefore, Cassini scientists think that, like Earth's surface, Titan's surface has been modified more recently by other geologic processes. However, such processes on Titan may take much longer than on Earth, acting over hundreds of millions of years. Image (b) shows bright features that appear to be streamlined as if were they formed by winds in Titan's atmosphere moving from west to east. The landing site of the Huygens probe is in the upper left corner of this image (see Cassini's View of Titan Landing Site). Image (c) shows a bright feature surrounded by dark material. Several long, dark and narrow lines running through the bright area may be larger examples of the dark channels seen by the Huygens probe (see Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan). These lines are on the order of 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide, and tens of kilometers long. Image (d) shows dark material within the bright area to the west of Xanadu. The linear nature of these features suggests that they may have formed by faulting. They may be dark due to modification by other surface processes occurring on Titan, in the same way that on Earth, fault-lines can be enhanced by erosion and/or deposition of material by water and wind. Image (e) shows brightness variations in the region southeast of the Huygens landing site. The features indicated by arrows exhibit shapes that are similar to drainage patterns seen on Earth and Mars, where the source of the liquid is underground springs rather than rainfall. Image (f) shows a region near the northwestern edge of Xanadu where the boundary between the bright and dark materials is quite complicated. Here some of the bright patches appear as if they represent thin surface plates that have been broken apart and spread apart over underlying dark material. The white bars above each image are 200 kilometers (124 miles) long. Imaging Titan through its thick atmosphere is a challenge, and the narrow, straight lines within the images, are seams between individual images that have not been completely removed. North is to the top of each frame. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Date	March 9, 2005

Empty Nest

title	Empty Nest
date	01.18.2004
description	This image mosaic taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater, Mars. This spectacular view may encapsulate Spirit's entire journey, from lander to its possible final destination toward the east hills. On its way, the rover will travel 250 meters (820 feet) northeast to a large crater approximately 200 meters (660 feet) across, the ridge of which can be seen to the left of this image. To the right are the east hills, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away from the lander. The picture was taken on the 16th martian day, or sol, of the mission (Jan. 18/19, 2004). A portion of Spirit's solar panels appear in the foreground. Data from the panoramic camera's green, blue and infrared filters were combined to create this approximate true color image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Photo Op

title	Photo Op
date	01.25.2004
description	This image is one of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's first breathtaking views of the martian landscape after its successful landing at Meridiani Planum on Mars. On the left, the rover's mast can be seen in a stowed position. Opportunity landed Saturday, Jan. 24, 2004 at about 9:05 PST. The image was taken by the rover's navigation camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Leaving Earth

title	Leaving Earth
date	06.10.2003
description	This spectacular shot of solid rocket motors separating from a Delta II rocket over Florida was captured during the June 10 liftoff of the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit. The rover and its twin, Opportunity, will arrive at Mars in January 2004.

Europe's Eye on Mars

title	Europe's Eye on Mars
date	01.14.2004
description	This image shows a portion of a 1,700 km long and 65 km wide swath which was taken in south-north direction across the Grand Canyon of Mars (Valles Marineris) from two perspectives. It is the first image of this size that shows the surface of Mars in high resolution (12 metres per pixel), in color and in 3D. Image Credit: European Space AgencyDLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Martian Meteorite

title	Martian Meteorite
description	NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found an iron meteorite, the first meteorite of any type ever identified on another planet. The pitted, basketball-size object is mostly made of iron and nickel according to readings from spectrometers on the rover. Only a small fraction of the meteorites fallen on Earth are similarly metal-rich. Others are rockier. As an example, the meteorite that blasted the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona is similar in composition. "This is a huge surprise, though maybe it shouldn't have been," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. The meteorite, dubbed "Heat Shield Rock," sits near debris of Opportunity's heat shield on the surface of Meridiani Planum, a cratered flatland that has been Opportunity's home since the robot landed on Mars nearly one year ago. "I never thought we would get to use our instruments on a rock from someplace other than Mars," Squyres said. "Think about where an iron meteorite comes from: a destroyed planet or planetesimal that was big enough to differentiate into a metallic core and a rocky mantle." Rover-team scientists are wondering whether some rocks that Opportunity has seen atop the ground surface are rocky meteorites. "Mars should be hit by a lot more rocky meteorites than iron meteorites," Squyres said. "We've been seeing lots of cobbles out on the plains, and this raises the possibility that some of them may in fact be meteorites. We may be investigating some of those in coming weeks. The key is not what we'll learn about meteorites -- we have lots of meteorites on Earth -- but what the meteorites can tell us about Meridiani Planum." The numbers of exposed meteorites could be an indication of whether the plain is gradually eroding away or being built up. NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Jim Garvin said, "Exploring meteorites is a vital part of NASA's scientific agenda, and discovering whether there are storehouses of them on Mars opens new research possibilities, including further incentives for robotic and then human-based sample-return missions. Mars continues to provide unexpected science 'gold,' and our rovers have proven the value of mobile exploration with this latest finding." Initial observation of Heat Shield Rock from a distance with Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer suggested a metallic composition and raised speculation last week that it was a meteorite. The rover drove close enough to use its Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers, confirming the meteorite identification over the weekend. Opportunity and Spirit successfully completed their primary three-month missions on Mars in April 2004. NASA has extended their missions twice because the rovers have remained in good condition to continue exploring Mars longer than anticipated. They have found geological evidence of past wet environmental conditions that might have, been hospitable to life. Opportunity has driven a total of 2.10 kilometers (1.30 miles). Minor mottling from dust has appeared in images from the rover's rear hazard-identification camera since Opportunity entered the area of its heat-shield debris, said Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., rover project manager. The rover team plans to begin driving Opportunity south toward a circular feature called "Vostok" within about a week. Spirit has driven a total of 4.05 kilometers (2.52 miles). It has been making slow progress uphill toward a ridge on "Husband Hill" inside Gusev Crater. Image Credit: NASA

Spirit's Shadow

title	Spirit's Shadow
date	02.22.2004
description	NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit casts a shadow over the trench that the rover is examining with tools on its robotic arm. Spirit took this image with its front hazard-avoidance camera on Feb. 21, 2004, during the rover's 48th martian day, or sol. It dug the trench with its left front wheel the preceding sol. Plans call for Spirit to finish examining the trench on sol 50. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Eyeing Eagle Crater

title	Eyeing Eagle Crater
description	This image mosaic, compiled from navigation and panoramic camera images during the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's 33rd, 35th, and 36th sols on Mars, shows a panoramic view of the crater where the rover had been exploring since its dramatic arrival in late January 2004. The crater, now informally referred to as "Eagle Crater," is approximately 22 meters (72 feet) in diameter. Opportunity's lander is visible in the center of the image. Track marks reveal the rover's progress. The rover cameras recorded this view as Opportunity climbed close to the crater rim as part of a soil survey campaign. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Earth From Mars

title	Earth From Mars
date	03.08.2004
description	This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. The image is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation camera showing a broad view of the sky, and an image taken by the rover's panoramic camera of Earth. The contrast in the panoramic camera image was increased two times to make Earth easier to see.The inset shows a combination of four panoramic camera images zoomed in on Earth. The arrow points to Earth. Earth was too faint to be detected in images taken with the panoramic camera's color filters. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M

Looking Back

title	Looking Back
date	03.26.2004
description	NASA's Opportunity rover looks back at the crater where it landed and spent the first two months of its mission exploring exposed bedrock. This area may have been the shore of a shallow sea. The image is the first 360-degree view from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's new position outside "Eagle Crater," the small crater where the rover landed about two months ago. Scientists are busy analyzing Opportunity's new view of the plains of Meridiani Planum. The plentiful ripples are a clear indication that wind is the primary geologic process currently in effect on the plains. The rover's tracks can be seen leading away from Eagle Crater. At the far left are two depressions - each about a meter (about 3.3 feet) across - that feature bright spots in their centers. One possibility is that the bright material is similar in composition to the rocks in Eagle Crater's outcrop and the surrounding darker material is what's referred to as "lag deposit," or erosional remnants, which are much harder and more difficult to wear away. These twin dimples might be revealing pieces of a larger outcrop that lies beneath. The depression closest to Opportunity is whimsically referred to as "Homeplate" and the one behind it as "First Base." The backshell and parachute that helped protect the rover and deliver it safely to the surface of Mars are also visible near the horizon, at the left of the image. This image was taken by the rover's navigation camera. Image Credi: NASA/JPL

Victoria Crater' at Meridian …

title	Victoria Crater' at Meridiani Planum
date	10.06.2006
description	This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows "Victoria crater," an impact crater at Meridiani Planum, near the equator of Mars. The crater is approximately 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter. It has a distinctive scalloped shape to its rim, caused by erosion and downhill movement of crater wall material. Layered sedimentary rocks are exposed along the inner wall of the crater, and boulders that have fallen from the crater wall are visible on the crater floor. The floor of the crater is occupied by a striking field of sand dunes. Since January 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been operating at Meridiani Planum. Five days before this image was taken, Opportunity arrived at the rim of Victoria crater, after a drive of more than 9 kilometers (over 5 miles). The rover can be seen in this image, at roughly the "ten o'clock" position along the rim of the crater. This view is a portion of an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Oct. 3, 2006. The complete image is centered at minus7.8 degrees latitude, 279.5 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 297 kilometers (185.6 miles). At this distance the image scale is 29.7 centimeters (12 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 89 centimeters (35 inches) across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer. This is an enhanced-color view generated from images acquired by the HiRISE camera using its red filter and blue-green filter. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mroor http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA

Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit" Launches

Mars Exploration Rover "Spir …

title	Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit" Launches
date	06.10.2003
description	Amid billows of smoke and steam, the Delta II rocket with its Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) payload lifts off the pad on time at 1:58 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. MER-A, known as "Spirit," is the first of two rovers being launched to Mars. When the two rovers arrive at the red planet in 2004, they will bounce to airbag-cushioned landings at sites offering a balance of favorable conditions for safe landings and interesting science. The rovers see sharper images, can explore farther and examine rocks better than anything that has ever landed on Mars. The designated site for the MER-A mission is Gusev Crater, which appears to have been a crater lake. The second rover, MER-B, is scheduled to launch June 25. Image Credit: NASA

Spirit's Race Against Winter

title	Spirit's Race Against Winter
date	11.29.2007
description	While struggling to reach a winter outpost necessary for survival on Mars, Spirit has been slowed by sand in the bottom of a shallow, bowl-like depression. Spirit's goal is to reach a slope on the north edge of "Home Plate" that will keep its solar panels trained on the Sun. If the rover can collect enough sunlight to survive, Spirit will continue to study terrain near "Home Plate," which the rover reached after crossing the floor of Gusev Crater and scaling the "Columbia Hills." This map shows the rover's progress from July 2004 to November 2007. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/UNM/High-Resolution Science Imaging Experiment

Columbia Memorial

title	Columbia Memorial
date	01.06.2004
description	The landing site of the Mars Spirit rover in honor of the astronauts who died in the tragic accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February. The area in the vast flatland of the Gusev Crater where Spirit landed this weekend will be called the Columbia Memorial Station. Since its historic landing, Spirit has been sending extraordinary images of its new surroundings on the red planet over the past few days. Among them, an image of a memorial plaque placed on the spacecraft to Columbia's astronauts and the STS-107 mission. The plaque is mounted on the back of Spirit's high-gain antenna, a disc-shaped tool used for communicating directly with Earth. The plaque is aluminum and approximately six inches in diameter. The memorial plaque was attached March 28, 2003, at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Chris Voorhees and Peter Illsley, Mars Exploration Rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed the plaque. Image Credit: NASA

Spirit Celebration

title	Spirit Celebration
date	01.03.2004
description	NASA's Mars Exploration Rover team reacts after getting the first signals from the Spirit rover on the surface of Mars. Spirit landed at Mars' Gusev Carter at 8:52 p.m. (PST) on Saturday, Jan. 3. Image Credit: NASA

Spirit Descent

title	Spirit Descent
date	01.03.2004
description	This image, taken by the descent image motion estimation system camera located on the bottom of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's lander, shows a view of Gusev Crater as the lander descends to Mars. The picture is taken at an altitude of 1400 meters. Numerous small impact craters can be seen on the surface of the planet. These images help the onboard software to minimize the lander's horizontal velocity before its bridal is cut, and it falls freely to the surface of Mars. See more Spirit images in the Mars Exploration Rover Image Gallery. Image Credit: NASA

Spirit's View of Mars

title	Spirit's View of Mars
date	01.03.2004
description	Only hours after landing, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit sent back its first black and white images of Mars. This mosaic image taken by Spirit's navigation has been further processed, significantly improving the 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars. See more images in the Mars Exploration Rover Image Gallery. Image Credit: NASA

Six Wheels on Mars

title	Six Wheels on Mars
date	01.15.2004
description	This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's rear hazard identification camera shows the rover's hind view of the lander platform, its nest for the past 12 sols, or martian days. The rover is approximately 1 meter (3 feet) in front of the airbag-cushioned lander, facing northwest. Note the tracks left in the martian soil by the rovers' wheels, all six of which have rolled off the lander. This is the first time the rover has touched martian soil. Image Credit: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Spirit Reaches Out

title	Spirit Reaches Out
date	01.16.2004
description	This animation, composed of four images taken by the front hazard-identification camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows the rover stretching out its robotic arm, or instrument deployment device. This is the first use of the arm on Mars to deploy the microscopic imager, one of four geological instruments located on the arm. The first frame shows a clear view of the martian surface in front of the rover before the arm was successfully deployed early Friday morning. The subsequent frames show the arm emerging from its stowed position beneath the "front porch" of the rover body, reaching out, and using the microscopic imager to take close-up images of the martian soil. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/US Geological Survey

Making Tracks on Mars

title	Making Tracks on Mars
date	01.31.2004
description	This image captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's rear hazard-identification camera shows the now-empty lander that carried the rover 283 million miles to Meridiani Planum, Mars. Engineers received confirmation that Opportunity's six wheels successfully rolled off the lander and onto martian soil at 3:01 a.m. PST, January 31, 2004, on the seventh martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rover is approximately 1 meter (3 feet) in front of the lander, facing north. Immediate science results from the rover indicated that the site does indeed have a type of mineral, crystalline hematite, that was the principal reason the site was selected for exploration. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Spirit Launch

title	Spirit Launch
date	06.10.2003
description	A trail of smoke is all that identifies the Delta II rocket with the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit aboard as it hurtles into space. Liftoff occurred on time at 1:58 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Spirit was the first of two rovers launched to Mars in the summer of 2003. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite sides of the planet in January 2004. The rovers see sharper images, can explore farther and examine rocks better than anything that has ever landed on Mars. Spirit's destination was Gusev Crater, which appears to have been a crater lake. Image Credit: NASA

Mars Exploration Rover

title	Mars Exploration Rover
date	12.15.2003
description	An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Two rovers, Spirit and Opportunitylanded on Mars in January 2004. Each has the mobility and toolkit to function as a robotic geologist. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University/Maas Digital

Endurance Crater

title	Endurance Crater
description	This navigation camera mosaic, created from images taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on sols 115 and 116 (May 21 and 22, 2004) provides a dramatic view of "Endurance Crater." The rover engineering team carefully plotted the safest path into the football field-sized crater, eventually easing the rover down the slopes around sol 130 (June 12, 2004). To the upper left of the crater sits the rover's protective heatshield, which sheltered Opportunity as it passed through the martian atmosphere. The 360-degree view is presented in a cylindrical projection, with geometric and radiometric seam correction. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

An Asteroid's Sky Trek

title	An Asteroid's Sky Trek
description	While analyzing NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG), an international team of astronomers led by Simone Marchi, Yazan Momany, and Luigi Bedin were surprised to see the trail of a faint asteroid that had drifted across the field of view during the exposures. The trail is seen as a series of 13 reddish arcs on the right in this August 2003 Advanced Camera for Surveys image. As the Hubble telescope orbits around the Earth, and the Earth moves around the Sun, a nearby asteroid in our solar system will appear to move with respect to the vastly more distant background stars, due to an effect called parallax. It is somewhat similar to the effect you see from a moving car, in which trees by the side of the road appear to be moving much more rapidly than background objects at much larger distances. If the Hubble exposure were a continuous one, the asteroid trail would appear like a continuous wavy line. However, the exposure with Hubble's camera was actually broken up into more than a dozen separate exposures. After each exposure, the camera's shutter was closed while the image was transferred from the electronic detector into the camera's computer memory, this accounts for the many interruptions in the asteroid's trail. Since the trajectory of the Hubble spacecraft around the Earth is known very accurately, it is possible to triangulate the distance to the asteroid in a manner similar to that used by terrestrial surveyors. It turns out to be a previously unknown asteroid, located 169 million miles from Earth at the time of observation. The distance places the new object, most likely, in the main asteroid belt, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Based on the observed brightness of the asteroid, the astronomers estimate that it has a diameter of about 1.5 miles. The brightest stars in the picture (easily distinguished by the spikes radiating from their images, produced by optical effects within the telescope), are foreground stars lying within our own Milky Way galaxy. Their distances from Earth are typically a few thousand light-years. The faint, bluish SagDIG stars lie at about 3.5 million light-years (1.1 Megaparsecs) from us. Lastly, background galaxies (reddish/brown extended objects with spiral arms and halos) are located even further beyond SagDIG at several tens of millions parsecs away. There is thus a vast range of distances among the objects visible in this photo, ranging from about 169 million miles for the asteroid, up to many quadrillions of miles for the faint, small galaxies. The team reported their science findings about the asteroid in the October 2004 issue of New Astronomy. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Momany (University of Padua)

Rover Tracks on Mars

title	Rover Tracks on Mars
description	New imaging techniques enabled Mars Global Surveyor to capture the incredibly detailed images from orbit of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover's tracks on the surface of Mars. The orbiter entered its third mission extension in September 2004 after seven years of orbiting Mars. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit on Sept. 12, 1997. Image Credit: NASA

Still Going

title	Still Going
date	09.26.2004
description	This frame from Spirit's panoramic camera is the 50,000th image from NASA's pair of Mars Exploration Rovers. It shows the camera's calibration target, the most photographed subject on Mars, with a glimpse past it to rocks and soil at the location in the "Columbia Hills" where Spirit was examining soil during its 260th martian day, or sol (Sept. 25, 2004). The outer circle of the calibration target is 8 centimeters (3.15 inches) in diameter. The target includes reference colors and a shadow-casting post. Most days when the panoramic camera is used, it takes a series of images of the calibration target through different filters to aid in accurate interpretation of the other images it takes. This frame was taken by the left eye of the camera's stereo pair, through a red-orange filter admitting light with wavelengths centered at 600 nanometers. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Above Spirit

title	Above Spirit
date	01.03.2004
description	A mosaic image taken by Spirit's navigation camera shows the Mars Exploration Rover sitting on its landing platform only hours after touching down on Gusev Crater. The image has been reprocessed to imove the view. See more Spirit images in the Mars Exploration Rover Image Gallery. Image Credit: NASA

Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth

Hubble Captures Best View of …

Title	Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth
General Information	What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]

Mars: Closest Encounter

Title	Mars: Closest Encounter

Hubble Images of Asteroids Help Astronomers Prepare for Spacecraft Visit

Hubble Images of Asteroids H …

Title	Hubble Images of Asteroids Help Astronomers Prepare for Spacecraft Visit

Largest Asteroid May Be 'Mini Planet' with Water Ice

Largest Asteroid May Be 'Min …

Title	Largest Asteroid May Be 'Mini Planet' with Water Ice

ACD04-0001-023

Visit of House Appropriation …

1/6/04

Description	Visit of House Appropriations Committee Staffer Michelle Burket, accompanied by Mary D. Kerwin, Deputy AA for Legislative Affairs at NASA HQ tour the Ames Mars Center exhibits with R-L: David Morse, Kerwin & Burkett
Date	1/6/04

ACD04-0024-006

SUBVOCAL SPEECH DEMONSTRATIO …

2/10/04

Description	SUBVOCAL SPEECH DEMONSTRATION BY CHUCK JORGENSEN, N-269 LAB: BEING USED TO DIRECT A ROBOT ON MARS DEMO
Date	2/10/04

ACD04-0043-026

NASA Research Park Explorati …

3/11/04

Description	NASA Research Park Exploration Lecture Series presents "The Moon, Mars and Beyond with Andrew Chaikin. Book signing session.
Date	3/11/04

95-degree Position at JPL Te …

Title	95-degree Position at JPL Testbed
Description	This image shows a test rover in a near-final turned position on the lander in the JPL In-Situ Instruments Laboratory, or "testbed." This is where engineers tested the rover's three-point turn before completing the manuever with the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on Mars. At this point, the test rover has turned 95 degrees, with 115 degrees being its goal position. This picture looks remarkably similar to the image taken by the rover's hazard avoidance camera while in the same position on Mars.
Date	01.14.2004

Martian Eclipses: Deimos and …

Title	Martian Eclipses: Deimos and Phobos
Description	[figure removed for brevity, see original site] [figure removed for brevity, see original site] [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Deimos [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Phobos This panel combines the first photographs of solar eclipses by Mars' two moons. The panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured the images as the first in a planned series of eclipse observations by Opportunity and Spirit. The Deimos image was taken at 03:04 Universal Time on March 4, 2004. This irregularly shaped moon is only 15 kilometers (9 miles) across in its longest dimension. It appears as just a speck in front of the disc of the Sun. The Phobos image was taken as that moon grazed the edge of the solar disc at 02:46 Universal Time on March 7, 2004. Phobos is 27 kilometers (17 miles) in its longest dimension. Its apparent size relative to Deimos is even greater because it orbits much closer to Mars' surface than Deimos does.
Date	03.08.2004

Martian Moon Eclipses Sun, i …

Title	Martian Moon Eclipses Sun, in Stages
Description	This panel illustrates the transit of the martian moon Phobos across the Sun. It is made up of images taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the morning of the 45th martian day, or sol, of its mission. This observation will help refine our knowledge of the orbit and position of Phobos. Other spacecraft may be able to take better images of Phobos using this new information. This event is similar to solar eclipses seen on Earth in which our Moon passes in front of the Sun. The images were taken by the rover's panoramic camera.
Date	03.13.2004

Martian Sunsets More Than Ju …

Title	Martian Sunsets More Than Just Pretty
Description	This image shows the Sun as it appears on Mars throughout the day. Scientists monitor the dimming of the setting Sun to assess how much dust is in the martian atmosphere. The pictures were taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera.
Date	01.10.2004

Artist's Concept of Rover on …

Title	Artist's Concept of Rover on Mars
Description	An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Two rovers have been built for 2003 launches and January 2004 arrival at two sites on Mars. Each rover has the mobility and toolkit to function as a robotic geologist.
Date	02.19.2003

NASA Selects Mars Exploratio …

Title	NASA Selects Mars Exploration Program Rover for 2003 Mission
Description	In 2003, NASA plans to launch a relative of the now-famous 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover. Using drop, bounce and roll technology, this larger cousin is expected to reach the surface of the red planet in January 2004 and begin the longest journey of scientific exploration ever undertaken across the surface of that alien world. The rover will weigh about nearly 150 kilograms (about 300 pounds) and has a range of up to about 100 meters (110 yards) per sol, or Martian day. Surface operations will last for at least 90 sols, extending to late April 2004, but could continue longer, depending on the health of the rover. One aspect of the Mars rover's mission is to determine history of climate and water at a site or sites on Mars where conditions may once have been warmer and wetter and thus potentially favorable to life as we know it here on Earth. The exact landing site has not yet been chosen, but is likely to be a location such as a former lakebed or channel deposit -- a place where scientists believe there was once water. A site will be selected on the basis of intensive study of orbital data collected by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, as well as the Mars 2001 orbiter and other missions.
Date	07.27.2000

Narrow Search

Remove

What

Where

Who

When

Browse All : Mars from 2004