homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Curiosity Rover Takes Low Angle Selfie

I’m not a big fan of selfies, but when you’re on Mars, you can take all the selfies you want! NASA’s Curiosity Rover has taken some pretty cool of itself – and the Martian surroundings. This latest picture was taken by the rover at “Buckskin” – the 7th rock the rover will sample for analysis. […]

Mihai Andrei
August 20, 2015 @ 12:51 pm

share Share

I’m not a big fan of selfies, but when you’re on Mars, you can take all the selfies you want! NASA’s Curiosity Rover has taken some pretty cool of itself – and the Martian surroundings.

This latest picture was taken by the rover at “Buckskin” – the 7th rock the rover will sample for analysis. This particular portrait differs from the others in that it is taken from a low angle. The two bright gray patches were actually made by Curiosity. The triangular patch is where the rover drilled Buckskin (a dark circle shows where the hammer tool went into the ground), while the other is a dump of powdered rock too large to be analyzed.

The Curiosity Rover has been on Mars for three years already – although it feels like yesterday. The rover’s main goals are to investigate the Martian climate and geology and assess if the field inside Gale Crater was ever inhabited by microbes, as well offer information for future potential human expeditions to Mars.

So far, Curiosity has already shown that Mars once had the right conditions for microbial life.

share Share

Why Santa’s Reindeer Are All Female, According to Biology

Move over, Rudolph—Santa’s sleigh team might just be a league of extraordinary females.

What do reindeer do for Christmas? Actually, they just chill through it

As climate change and human development reshape the Arctic, reindeer face unprecedented challenges.

Ducks in the Amazon: Pre-Colonial Societies Mastered Complex Agriculture

Far from being untouched wilderness, the Amazon was shaped by pre-Columbian societies with a keen understanding of ecology.

Archaeologists Uncover Creepy Floor Made From Bones Hidden Beneath a Medieval Dutch House

Archaeologists uncover a mysterious flooring style in the Netherlands, built with cattle bones.

How Hot is the Moon? A New NASA Mission is About to Find Out

Understanding how heat moves through the lunar regolith can help scientists understand how the Moon's interior formed.

This 5,500-year-old Kish tablet is the oldest written document

Beer, goats, and grains: here's what the oldest document reveals.

A Huge, Lazy Black Hole Is Redefining the Early Universe

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a massive, dormant black hole from just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Did Columbus Bring Syphilis to Europe? Ancient DNA Suggests So

A new study pinpoints the origin of the STD to South America.

The Magnetic North Pole Has Shifted Again. Here’s Why It Matters

The magnetic North pole is now closer to Siberia than it is to Canada, and scientists aren't sure why.

For better or worse, machine learning is shaping biology research

Machine learning tools can increase the pace of biology research and open the door to new research questions, but the benefits don’t come without risks.