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James Webb Space Telescope’s first pictures of Mars could reveal more about the atmosphere

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Admin

The James Webb Space Telescope is still snapping its first pictures of Solar System planets, and the latest batch could be particularly useful. NASA and the ESA have shared early images of Mars, taken on September 5th, that promise new insights into the planet’s atmosphere. Data from the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) is already offering a few surprises. For starters, the giant Hellas Basin is oddly darker than nearby areas at the hottest time of the day, NASA’s Giuliano Liuzzi and Space.com noted — higher air pressure at the basin’s lower altitude has suppressed thermal emissions.

The JWST imagery also gave space agencies an opportunity to share Mars’ near-infrared atmospheric composition using the telescope’s onboard spectrograph array. The spectroscopic ‘map’ (pictured at middle) shows the planet absorbing carbon dioxide at several different wavelengths, and also shows the presences of carbon monoxide and water. A future research paper will provide more detail about the Martian air’s chemistry.

How did the James Webb Space Telescope record the images perfectly?

Mars atmosphere composition from James Webb Space TelescopeNASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Mars JWST/GTO team. It was particularly tricky to record the images. Mars is one of the brightest objects the James Webb telescope can see — a problem for an observatory designed to study the most distant objects in the universe. Researchers countered this by capturing very short exposures and using special techniques to analyze the findings.

This is only the initial wave of pictures and data. It will take more observations to reveal more about Mars. However, the spectral info already hints at more information about the planet’s materials. Liuzzi also thinks JWST studies could settle disputes over the presence of methane on Mars, potentially signaling that the Red Planet harbored life in its distant past.

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover collects ‘amazing’ rock samples

Posted on September 19, 2022September 19, 2022 by Admin

The US space agency’s Perseverance rover is close to completing its first set of objectives on Mars. The Nasa robot has collected a diverse set of rock samples that it will soon deposit on the surface, awaiting carriage to Earth by later missions.

Arrival at Jezero Crater

It’s been 17 months since the vehicle arrived in an area called Jezero Crater, slung below a rocket crane. Everything “Percy” has seen since confirms to scientists the rover is in the perfect place to hunt for life. It’s not looking for any organisms that are alive today; the harsh environment on Mars makes their presence highly improbable. Rather, the robot is searching for the traces of a biology that could have existed billions of years ago when Jezero was filled with a lake.

This ancient history, scientists hope, is now recorded in the “amazing” rock samples that will be laid down in “a depot” in the next couple of months.

Perseverance’s Mission

Perseverance’s mission is to drill rocks and store samples for later return to Earth laboratories

Nasa and the European Space Agency are working up a plan to retrieve the rock cache. It’s an audacious plan that will involve another landing system, some helicopters, a Martian rocket and an interplanetary freighter. The goal is to have the samples back on Earth in 2033.

The delivery will include some examples of igneous, or volcanic, rocks that Perseverance drilled out on the crater floor. These will tell the story, mostly, of Jezero before it was filled with lake water. Critically, the samples are of a rock type that can be definitively dated. At present, ages on Mars can only be inferred indirectly.

The other part of the cache will include sedimentary type rocks that Perseverance has been collecting in recent months from the delta deposits in the western sector of the 45km-wide crater. A delta is a structure built up from the silt and sand dumped by a river as it slows on entry into a wider body of water. It’s the kind of geological feature that might just have trapped traces of past microbial life.

Looking at the sedimentary core samples drilled by Perseverance. Wildcat Ridge is on the left

One of the sedimentary samples, from a rock nicknamed “Wildcat Ridge”, was formed when muds settled in the Jezero lake as it was evaporating. It’s full of salts. But the rover’s instrumentation shows that Wildcat Ridge also contains abundant organic, or carbon-rich, compounds. This is a tantalising observation but comes with important caveats.

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NASA’S Perseverance Rover is demonstrating Brilliance in Sound Detection

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Admin

Since its landing on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance Rover has shown utmost brilliance in studying and collecting researchable objects on the Red planet. These recordings have greatly helped scientists and researchers likewise in studying the Martian environment in a comprehensive manner.

Studies by NASA’S Perseverance Rover

Since landing on Mars more than a year ago, NASA’s Perseverance Rover has used its microphones to capture the sounds of the Red Planet, including its harsh winds and the hum of Ingenuity cutting through the atmosphere. And now those recordings have helped scientists discover that sound travels differently on Mars than it does on Earth.

In a study published on Friday in the journal Nature, researchers said they determined the Red Planet’s thin carbon dioxide atmosphere causes sound to travel slower on Mars, with a sound’s pitch further affecting its speed. On Earth, sound typically travels at 767 miles per hour. But on Mars, scientists determined that low-pitched travel at approximately 537 miles per hour, while high-pitched ones move at about 559 miles per hour.

Early Detection of High-Pitched sounds

Slower sounds on Mars

Were you to visit Mars, that means you would hear high-pitched sounds slightly earlier. “On Earth, the sounds from an orchestra reach you at the same speed, whether they are low or high. But imagine on Mars, if you are a little far from the stage, there will be a big delay,” Sylvestre Maurice, the study’s lead author, told France’s AFP news agency.

Sounds also carry a shorter distance due to the planet’s thin atmosphere. On Earth, they drop off at about 213 feet, whereas on Mars sounds start to falter after only 13 feet. That’s something that would make it difficult to have a conversation with someone only 16 feet away from you. If you want to hear how things like birds and ocean waves would sound on Mars, NASA has put together recordings that give a sense of just how much a Martian-like atmosphere would change our perception of the world.

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Tag: Mars