What s Up in the Sky: A historic mission on the Red Planet
Peter Burkey
As winter turns to spring, the “Winter Hexagon” and the popular constellations of Orion and Taurus sink lower in the west, leaving an arc of stars formed by Procyon, Pollux, Castor, and Capella. All month the planet Mars is easily visible, appearing between the two constellations.
In the coming months, Mars, along with all its neighbors, will continue to sink lower in the west. If you have trouble picking out which “star” is actually Mars, the planet appears a little brighter than Pollux and a little dimmer than Castor and has a distinct, reddish tone. By the middle of April, the two will be in a straight line with and half way between Betelgeuse and Capella.
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Hopes for water on Mars drives rovers and research forward
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A new study conducted by the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) presented promising evidence that Mars contains a significant amount of water beneath its surface.
This study challenges the long-held hypothesis that Mars’ oceans escaped the atmosphere billions of years ago as a result of dust storms and the planet’s low gravity. Caltech’s paper arrives at an exciting time for the red planet, with two rovers touching down this year and multiple international research projects aiming to learn more about the history and structure of Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor.
March 14, 2021
The Tianwen-1 mission entered Mars orbit at the end of February. It’s expected to land a rover on Mars’ surface in May. In the meantime, check out these new images from the Tianwen-1 orbiter.
Mars’ north pole, as imaged by the Tianwen-1 orbiter from an altitude of about 340 km (211 miles). Image via CNSA.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) released new images from the Tianwen-1 Mars mission earlier this month, on March 4, 2021. The color image shows the north pole of Mars, and the two black-and-white images show other striking Mars surface features, acquired by a separate high-definition camera capable of revealing details as small as 23 feet (7 meters).