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GumbyTheCat
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A blog for the purpose of communicating my views on the intersection of science, religion and society. Written by a layman, for other laypeople with an interest in science. Recurring themes include the evolution vs. creation debate, and astronomy. I
Recent Posts Tagged With 'mars'
The Resilience Of Spirit
Look at all that dust! Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University The Mars rover Spirit had a pretty close call this week. A dust storm around Gusev Crater cut into the amount of sunlight reaching the solar array, leaving the rover in se...
Phoenix, We Hardly Knew Ye
Phoenix begins its journey to Mars, on August 4, 2007. Well, it looks as if the Mars Phoenix Lander has given up the electronic ghost. Dust storms that have limited the craft's solar panels' light-collecting ability, plus the start of Martian ...
Images From Science: Mars Express HRSC
Echus Chasma, one of the largest ancient water source regions on Mars. The cliff is approximately 4000 meters high! Cydonia - Location of the so-called "Face On Mars". Candor Valley.Water ice in a polar crater. Martian valley....
Calling All Mars Dorks
Ahhhh... a NatGeo special made just for me. Or, at least, that's what I choose to delude myself into believing. Those of us who enjoy all things Mars owe it to themselves to check out the National Geographic Channel's new special, Five Years On Mar...
Phoenix: Beginning Of The End
Well, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. In this case, the "good thing" is the Mars Phoenix Lander. Although it has practically doubled its expected lifespan on the arctic plains of Mars, the lander has no control over the...
Cydonia Mensae: The 'Face' On Mars
Pareidolia: A psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hearing hidden messag...
Mars Scars
A pair of craters on Mars - 12.5 kilometers apart, aligned in the same direction and both oval-shaped - might be the impact scars left over when a (so far hypothetical) third moon of the Red Planet (the others being Phobos and Deimos) broke apart an...
Opportunity, Take A Hike
Opportunity is currently at Victoria Crater; it is going to attempt to reach the much larger crater Endeavour. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. The Mars Rover Opportunity is about to embark on what could be its final journey. After Opportu...
Opportunity Leaves Victoria Crater
After catching its electronic breath and uttering a robotic sigh of relief, the Mars Rover Opportunity looks back into Victoria Crater after its month-long struggle to escape. Note the two sets of tracks; the rover basically took the same route...
Water Confirmed On Mars
Could Mars have looked like this billions of years ago?In a previous post I told you about how scientists declared that there is water on Mars by tracking the sublimation of a white substance in in a trench dug by the robotic arm of the Mars Phoenix ...
Possible Mars Lander Problem
The Phoenix scoop's next mission may be its most vital yet.Houston, we may finally have a problem.Halfway through its primary 90-sol mission, the Mars Phoenix Lander has developed a short-circuit in one of its eight test ovens. This malfunction actua...
Martian Mudslinging
One of the four sensor-outfitted water-bearing beakers aboard Phoenix. The successes for the Phoenix Mars Probe continue to pile up at an impressive rate. Phoenix has mixed a cubic centimeter of Martian soil into one of four onboard beakers that co...
Mars On The Rocks
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M UniversityEureka!The Phoenix Mars Probe has officially accomplished one of its main goals - finding proof of water ice on Mars.As seen in the side-by-side images above, water ice in t...
Who'da Thunk It?
It's funny how the totally unexpected sometimes happens.Tim Williams, an agronomist at the University of Georgia, has been studying peanuts for almost 40 years. He has several inventions to his credit, including one from 1987 that measures the water ...
Mars Phoenix Update
This image from the Optical Microscope aboard Phoenix shows soil particles resting on a substrate designed to catch tiny particles. Each strip you see here is about .4 mm in width.Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Imperial Colleg...
Communications Glitch Delays Phoenix Dig
A possible ice patch revealed during a test scoop by Phoenix's robotic arm.Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Texas A&MFirst the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, now the Odyssey.After a couple of practice runs, today was to be the day the M...
Phoenix Probe Update
Water ice? Quite possibly, according to the University of Arizona.The descent thrusters of the Mars Phoenix Probe may have inadvertently proven what scientists pretty much knew all along - that there's a lot of ice just underneath the Martian surface...
A Mars Exploration First
File this under "Stuff you don't see every day".Credit: NASASince Michel Fournier didn't make his record-breaking parachute jump today, I feel obliged to provide at least one parachuting-themed photograph.The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this ...
Phoenix Special On Nat Geo
Approximate true-color image of soil near the Phoenix probe. The polygonal patterns are what we observe in tundra here on Earth, when permafrost repeatedly expands and contracts the soil.At midnight last night, the National Geographic Channel ran a N...
Phoenix's First Images
A mere two hours and seven minutes after touchdown of the Mars Phoenix Probe, I have the first amazing images. Remember, you saw them here first (I hope!)The first-ever image of the landscape of the Martian north polar region, courtesy of the Mars Ph...
The Phoenix Has Landed
Mare Boreum, the north pole of Mars. The Phoenix Probe is somewhere down there!I'm watching NASA TV and two minutes ago (7:53:44 PM Eastern time) the Mars Phoenix Probe successfully landed near the Martian north pole. To be more precise, the radio co...
