MARS: PERSEVERANCE'S FIRST FULL COLOR LOOK

 

Photo:  Source

The above is from Mars rover Perseverance that landed recently on Mars and the picture is the first color look as captured on 2/18/21.

From NASA's website:

"This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on Feb. 18, 2021.

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent missions by NASA in cooperation with ESA (the European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers."

For more information and to keep up to date on Perseverance's progress visit  https://mars.nasa.gov/#

ASTRONOMY: MARS TO BE VISIBLE AT PRE-DAWN AUGUST 9, 2020

My artistic interpretation of Mars

Something interesting and free, if you can stay up late Saturday or get up early enough Sunday morning, is to see Mars.

NASA has posted:

"On Saturday night into Sunday morning, the planet Mars will appear near the waning gibbous Moon. For the Washington, DC area, the Moon will rise in the east Saturday night at 11:04 PM EDT, with Mars appearing less than 3 degrees to the left of the Moon. They will appear at their closest to each other early Sunday morning in the hour or so before morning twilight begins at 5:13 AM, with Mars appearing above the Moon. On Sunday morning, August 9, 2020, at 9:51 AM EDT, the Moon will be at apogee, its farthest from the Earth for this orbit." 

Below is a video posted by NASA from Twitter of other astronomical events in August:

You don’t have to be aboard a @NASA spacecraft to see #Mars. It’s visible toward the southeast in the pre-dawn sky now, and on the morning of August 9th, Mars will appear super close to the Moon. Details at: https://t.co/n0s8plh6jr pic.twitter.com/Na8p7gE1TS

— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) August 7, 2020