a Martian mystery

A remote Curiosity rover hack just helped crack a Martian mystery
Curiosity was sent to the Red Planet to search for life. Until researchers on Earth tweaked its innards and made it detect whiskers of Martian gravity.
By ROBIN ANDREWS

"While one Martian rover, Opportunity, has died, its younger cousin Curiosity has just solved a mystery. It measured tiny changes in the Red Planet’s gravity, allowing its mission team back home at NASA to understand how a huge, 3.4-mile high mountain the rover is exploring, had formed. ... "

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/curiosity-solves-gravity-mystery-on-mars

Mars Rover Named in Honor of Scientist Rosalind Franklin

European Mars Rover Named for Crystal Scientist Rosalind Franklin
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer | February 7, 2019 02:20pm ET
 
The European Space Agency (ESA) has named its next Mars rover, due to touch down on the Red Planet in March 2021, in honor of British scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose research was crucial to scientists' determining the structure of DNA.

https://www.space.com/43259-exomars-rover-named-for-rosalind-franklin.html

"James Watson and Francis Crick used her research without permission and with little credit when publishing their model of the structure of DNA in 1953. In Watson's book "The Double Helix," which shaped the narrative around the discovery of the structure of DNA for decades, he painted a vituperative picture of Franklin, whom he referred to as "Rosy." She died in 1958 at age 37, and her work went mostly unacknowledged until the 1990s."

Marte: il lago ghiacciato nel cratere Korolev

Il cratere Korolev, col suo lago ghiacciato.

Elaborazione Retinex di una immagine di Google Mars

Dettaglio

Spettacolo!

22 DICEMBRE 2018 Un lago ghiacciato tutto l'anno, nel cratere Korolev, in mezzo alle pianure settentrionali di Marte: è la spettacolare immagine diffusa dall'Agenzia spaziale europea (Esa) e ottenuta da 15 anni di sorvoli di Mars Express, il satellite in orbita dal 25 dicembre 2003. - See more at: http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/media/Spazio-su-Marte-un-lago-di-ghiaccio-nel-cratere-Korolev-e3baccbb-6c13-47cb-b6f8-261ab2668a35.html

Processing images from Mars

A site exists which is giving processing of images from Curiosity.
It is https://www.facebook.com/JourneytotheSurfaceoftheMARS/
Here an example:
https://www.facebook.com/JourneytotheSurfaceoftheMARS/photos/a.333231393552422.1073741828.333200476888847/679750542233837/?type=3&theater

This link is showing a detail of the image (Courtesy: NASA)
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01692/mhli/1692MH0007060010603983C00_DXXX.jpg
Here the "object" we can see in it.

Shell

The original image is available at the link

https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=1927MH0002970020703406C00_DXXX&s=1927

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on January 7, 2018, Sol 1927 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 06:40:59 UTC.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS 

Some processing of the image is giving this "shell".

Mimetic "animal"

The original image is available at the link

https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01928/mcam/1928MR0100610000900537E01_DXXX.jpg

The image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 1928 (2018-01-08 04:04:28 UTC). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS 

Some processing of the image is giving this mimetic "animal".

Egg rock

Cratere Gale, Sol 1505 (27 Ottobre 2016, tempo terrestre).

Il rover Curiosity si trova nella zona detta Murray Formation presso la base del Monte Sharp che è al centro del cratere. Durante la ricognizione, la Front Right Hazcam del rover, una delle quattro Hazard Avoidance Camera di Curiosity, registra l'immagine che vediamo nella Figura 1. Vicino al rover c'è qualcosa delle dimensioni di una pallina da golf, con una superficie sferica liscia e scura, che merita di essere vista meglio con la Mastcam, il sistema che fornisce immagini true-color del suolo di Marte. Il rover trasmette così a Terra un immagine che mostra che questo piccolo oggetto sferico è un meteorite ferroso (Figura 2), una parte di un corpo celeste che si è fuso nell'impatto con l’atmosfera di Marte. Questo meteorite è stato chiamato “Egg Rock”.

https://www.scribd.com/document/399967850/Egg-Rock-il-meteorite-ferroso-di-Marte

Alveolar Stones on Mars

Curiosity - Sol 1403

Adjusted

Green stone of Mars

Curiosity Sol 1505

Curiosity Rover Finds and Examines a Meteorite on Mars

http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=8149

Alveoli in the stone - Mars

Here magnificent alveoli in the stone on MARS. Curiosity Sol 1523

Note the bright lines which are segmenting the stone!

Wonderful.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=1523MH0003690000600330R00_DXXX&s=1523.76560068931

Again, we have a sort of honeycomb weathering. "Honeycomb weathering, also known as fretting, cavernous weathering, alveoli/alveolar weathering, stone lattice, stone lace or miniature tafoni weathering (Mustoe, 1982) is a form of salt weathering common on coastal and semi-arid granites, sandstones and limestones (Mustoe 1982)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_weathering

Martian Curiosity

"Martian Wood"

Of course, this is not wood. This formation is interesting because it looks like a sort of  honeycomb weathering.  "Honeycomb weathering, also known as fretting, cavernous weathering, alveoli/alveolar weathering, stone lattice, stone lace or miniature tafoni weathering (Mustoe, 1982) is a form of salt weathering common on coastal and semi-arid granites, sandstones and limestones (Mustoe 1982)."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_weathering

Curiosity Sol 1523

Martian Curiosity

Curiosity Sol 1537.

"Snake"

This is a very interesting rock formation. When the image is enhanced,  the colours make it looking like a "snake". 

We can see a stone of the same kind in other images of Curiosity - Sol 1514

Moving sand dunes on Mars

Moving Sand Dunes on Mars, by Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

Abstract: It was recently announced that the sand dunes on Mars can move. This important result was obtained by means of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), the camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The images, recorded three years apart, of the dunes in the Nili Patera caldera show that they move. Here we compare an image HiRISE of 2007 with an image of 1999 recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor. Therefore, with the help of Gimp, the GNU image processing software to enhance the images, we can see and measure the motion of the dunes during a longer period of time.

A dune on Mars which is moving. In the Nili Patera caldera.

199 on the left, 2007 on the right

More details and article at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/162390676/Moving-Sand-Dunes-on-Mars