APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

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APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by APOD Robot » Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:05 am

Image Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge

Explanation: If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? If you were NASA's Curiosity rover, just last month you would have seen the view from Vera Rubin Ridge, an intriguing rock-strewn perch on the side of Mount Sharp. In the featured 360-degree panorama, you can spin around and take in the vista from all directions, in many browsers, just by pointing or tilting. In this virtual reality view, many instruments on the rover are labelled, including antennas, the robotic arm, and the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). Dark sand and light rock cover the ground nearby in a mixture called lakebed mudstone. Towering Mount Sharp is only barely visible in the distance due to airborne dust from a planet-wide storm just winding down. Among its many discoveries, Curiosity has found that the raw ingredients for life are present on Mars. Next on Mars will be NASA's Insight, on target to land in late November, which is scheduled to deploy a seismometer to better study the interior of the red planet.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by DomeLord » Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:42 am

Considering there's been a planet-wide dust storm, I'm curious as to how the vehicle with all its instrumentation is kept so clean. Solar panels also usually don't like a coating of [presumably] opaque dust.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by webdan » Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:20 am

Curiosity has no solar panels.

Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), like the successful Viking 1 and Viking 2 Mars landers in 1976.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Curiosity_(rover)

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by De58te » Mon Sep 10, 2018 12:00 pm

DomeLord wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:42 am Considering there's been a planet-wide dust storm, I'm curious as to how the vehicle with all its instrumentation is kept so clean. Solar panels also usually don't like a coating of [presumably] opaque dust.
Well I think I see dust on top of that white control box. There is also dust around the wiring cables. It would be interesting if somebody has a picture of Curiosity straight out of the Clean Room for comparison.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by neufer » Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:07 pm

De58te wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 12:00 pm
DomeLord wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:42 am
Considering there's been a planet-wide dust storm, I'm curious as to how the vehicle with all its instrumentation is kept so clean. Solar panels also usually don't like a coating of [presumably] opaque dust.
Well I think I see dust on top of that white control box. There is also dust around the wiring cables. It would be interesting if somebody has a picture of Curiosity straight out of the Clean Room for comparison.
  • Opportunity got hit much harder than Curiosity:

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)

<<This series of images, created with imagery processed by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) crew at Malin Space Science Systems, shows simulated views of the path of the ongoing epic dust storm event as it moves across the planet, darkening the Martian sky and blotting out the Sun from Opportunity’s view. The storm is depicted in rusty red swaths. Opportunity and the younger, larger, roving laboratory Curiosity are placed in their approximate locations on the map. You can see in this gif how the dust storm increased in size and moves right over Opportunity during the first half of June. The robot remains hunkered down in a kind of hibernation mode waiting out the storm.>>
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by MarkBour » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:16 pm

neufer wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:07 pm
  • Opportunity got hit much harder than Curiosity:
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)

<<This series of images, created with imagery processed by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) crew at Malin Space Science Systems, shows simulated views of the path of the ongoing epic dust storm event as it moves across the planet, darkening the Martian sky and blotting out the Sun from Opportunity’s view. The storm is depicted in rusty red swaths. Opportunity and the younger, larger, roving laboratory Curiosity are placed in their approximate locations on the map. You can see in this gif how the dust storm increased in size and moves right over Opportunity during the first half of June. The robot remains hunkered down in a kind of hibernation mode waiting out the storm.>>
Thanks for posting that illuminating gif, Art. When that sequence ends, at 2018.06.11, it is clear that the dust storm was still spreading. It had engulfed Opportunity, and was closing in on Curiosity. I hope to see a more complete sequence when the entire run of the storm has been mapped. The caption on today's APOD refers to it now as a "winding down" dust storm, and many images have confirmed that. My first crude understanding of Mars' global dust storms is that they are more frequent around Mars perihelion, when it is being warmed more by the Sun. The relation is apparently not dirt simple, though. I read that Mars perihelion is in about a week, 2018.09.16 . But if the dust storm is now subsiding, it was near perihelion, but obviously not strongest at perihelion. I suppose the amount of dust aloft may not match the strongest winds in time, but that would be surprising, so I am suspecting that Mars' atmosphere has actually been calming down over the last 6 weeks or so (?)

From that sequence, it appears as though the dust began north of Opprtunity, just east of Chryse, then spread in all directions, but spread most rapidly eastward. When the sequence was almost over, it is interesting to see how it grew in the far south.
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by bystander » Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:19 pm

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by rstevenson » Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:55 pm

What an extremely odd experience. It's a video of a panorama, so just as you're getting engrossed in looking around, the video stops and you have to restart it. Is that the only way a pano file can be viewed?

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by bystander » Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:37 pm

rstevenson wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:55 pm
Is that the only way a pano file can be viewed?

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22545
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by Ann » Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:52 pm

It was interesting to pan around and look at the entire environment.

Mars is a bleak world. I wonder how many Mars analogs there are out there. And I wonder how many Earth analogs (with continents, liquid oceans and abundant life) there are out there.

P.S. I have to wonder if tomorrow's APOD, the "troll tongue galaxy", is this one.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by MarkBour » Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:19 am

Ann wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:52 pm It was interesting to pan around and look at the entire environment.

Mars is a bleak world. I wonder how many Mars analogs there are out there. And I wonder how many Earth analogs (with continents, liquid oceans and abundant life) there are out there.

P.S. I have to wonder if tomorrow's APOD, the "troll tongue galaxy", is this one.

Ann
I agree. It's one of the most hospitable places in our Solar system, but currently, "vast, unending bleakness" is a good description. It will be fascinating as statistical info builds up to where we might be able to answer your question about the comparative numbers for our galaxy. In our own solar system, we have the entire asteroid belt looking a lot more like Mars, and even our Moon is a blank rock, although it shares our orbit and more. So the local evidence, as I am reading it, makes me think we will find a lot more Mars analogs than Earth analogs.

You put me in mind of a related question. What if Mars, that exact planet, had occupied Earth's orbit instead of Earth. Would it still have come out as dry and as empty as it is now?
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by BDanielMayfield » Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:22 am

Ann wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:52 pm Mars is a bleak world. I wonder how many Mars analogs there are out there.
A great many, I would expect, simply due to the fact that in general small objects tend to far out-number large objects of any given class.
And I wonder how many Earth analogs (with continents, liquid oceans and abundant life) there are out there.
I used to think that there could be a great many, but not any more, due to the results from the Kepler mission and other early efforts at looking for Earth-like planets. There probably are a vast number of earth-sized planets, but with land, seas and abundant life, no, very few, I think.

Bruce
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by BDanielMayfield » Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:31 am

MarkBour wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:19 am [Ann's comment] put me in mind of a related question. What if Mars, that exact planet, had occupied Earth's orbit instead of Earth. Would it still have come out as dry and as empty as it is now?
It would have dried out even sooner than it did, due to the higher temperature and the more intense solar wind. By now even the polar and much of the sub-surface water might be gone, I would guess.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by Ann » Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:29 am

BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:31 am
MarkBour wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:19 am [Ann's comment] put me in mind of a related question. What if Mars, that exact planet, had occupied Earth's orbit instead of Earth. Would it still have come out as dry and as empty as it is now?
It would have dried out even sooner than it did, due to the higher temperature and the more intense solar wind. By now even the polar and much of the sub-surface water might be gone, I would guess.

Bruce
I agree with you, Bruce. Mars is a small planet, with low gravity, and no planet-wide magnetic field. The Sun would have eaten away at the atmosphere of Mars even faster if it had been in the Earth's position.

With a thinning atmosphere, the oceans of Mars would have boiled away even sooner, leaving Mars as dry as it is now. But I guess that Mars would at least have been warmer.

P.S. I wrote:
I have to wonder if tomorrow's APOD, the "troll tongue galaxy", is this one.
Nope.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by MarkBour » Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:36 pm

Ann wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:29 am
BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:31 am
MarkBour wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:19 am [Ann's comment] put me in mind of a related question. What if Mars, that exact planet, had occupied Earth's orbit instead of Earth. Would it still have come out as dry and as empty as it is now?
It would have dried out even sooner than it did, due to the higher temperature and the more intense solar wind. By now even the polar and much of the sub-surface water might be gone, I would guess.

Bruce
I agree with you, Bruce. Mars is a small planet, with low gravity, and no planet-wide magnetic field. The Sun would have eaten away at the atmosphere of Mars even faster if it had been in the Earth's position.

With a thinning atmosphere, the oceans of Mars would have boiled away even sooner, leaving Mars as dry as it is now. But I guess that Mars would at least have been warmer.

P.S. I wrote:
I have to wonder if tomorrow's APOD, the "troll tongue galaxy", is this one.
Nope.

Ann
Interesting thinking, Bruce and Ann. I wonder how its magnetosphere would have developed, whether the same or differently.

Ann, I liked your image anyway! It went very nicely with the "troll tongue galaxy" caption.
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by BDanielMayfield » Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:58 pm

MarkBour wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:36 pm
Ann wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:29 am
BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:31 am
It would have dried out even sooner than it did, due to the higher temperature and the more intense solar wind. By now even the polar and much of the sub-surface water might be gone, I would guess.

Bruce
I agree with you, Bruce. Mars is a small planet, with low gravity, and no planet-wide magnetic field. The Sun would have eaten away at the atmosphere of Mars even faster if it had been in the Earth's position.

With a thinning atmosphere, the oceans of Mars would have boiled away even sooner, leaving Mars as dry as it is now. But I guess that Mars would at least have been warmer.

P.S. I wrote:
I have to wonder if tomorrow's APOD, the "troll tongue galaxy", is this one.
Nope.

Ann
Interesting thinking, Bruce and Ann. I wonder how its magnetosphere would have developed, whether the same or differently.

Ann, I liked your image anyway! It went very nicely with the "troll tongue galaxy" caption.
What magnetosphere Mark? As Ann pointed out Mars has no global magnetic field. That is and was Mars' problem, as far as habitablity is and was conserned. Therefore it can't hold onto it's water and much of its atmosphere either.
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:39 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:58 pm
MarkBour wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:36 pm
Interesting thinking, Bruce and Ann. I wonder how its magnetosphere would have developed, whether the same or differently.
What magnetosphere Mark? As Ann pointed out Mars has no global magnetic field. That is and was Mars' problem, as far as habitablity is and was conserned. Therefore it can't hold onto it's water and much of its atmosphere either.
It did, for part of its existence. Had it formed at a different position, it's possible that its core might have evolved differently, and therefore that its magnetic field might have persisted longer.
Chris

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by neufer » Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:45 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:58 pm
As Ann pointed out Mars has no global magnetic field.

That is and was Mars' problem, as far as habitablity is and was concerned.

Therefore it can't hold onto it's water and much of its atmosphere either.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/incontinent#etymonline_v_6340 wrote:
incontinent (adj.) late 14c., "wanting self-restraint," from Old French incontinent (14c.) or directly from Latin incontinentem (nominative incontinens) "immoderate, intemperate, not holding back," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + continens (see continent (adj.)). Originally chiefly of sexual appetites.

He was incontynent, and with fleschely lustes he consumyd alle his tyme.
- ["Speculum Sacerdotale," 15th century]

General sense of "unable to retain" is from 1640s; medical sense of "unable to control bowels or bladder, unable to restrain natural discharges from the body" is attested by 1828.
.................................................
continent (n.) 1550s, "continuous tract of land," from continent land (mid-15c.), translating Medieval Latin terra continens "continuous land," from Latin continens "continuous," present participle of continere "to hold together, enclose," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + tenere "to hold" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch"). As "one of the large land masses of the globe" from 1610s. As "the mainland of Europe" (from the point of view of Britain), from c. 1600.
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by rstevenson » Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:11 am

bystander wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:37 pm
rstevenson wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:55 pm
Is that the only way a pano file can be viewed?

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22545
Well yes, I know there is a flat version of the image. My question had to do with the use of a video to view the pano file, a video which has to be repeatedly restarted if you want to look at the file for more than a minute and 20 seconds. So my question, stated more clearly, would be: Is there a non-video format that can be used to view a pano file imersively, as a VR, without having to start over every minute or so?

Rob

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:15 am

rstevenson wrote: Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:11 am
bystander wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:37 pm
rstevenson wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:55 pm
Is that the only way a pano file can be viewed?

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22545
Well yes, I know there is a flat version of the image. My question had to do with the use of a video to view the pano file, a video which has to be repeatedly restarted if you want to look at the file for more than a minute and 20 seconds. So my question, stated more clearly, would be: Is there a non-video format that can be used to view a pano file imersively, as a VR, without having to start over every minute or so?
All the video is doing is providing annotations. Otherwise, it's an ordinary pano file already. Just pause the video (around 1 minute there's no annotation). Then you can explore the dataset as much as you want. That is, the video does not need to be playing to use the pano feature.
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by daddyo » Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:59 am

Awesome, closest thing to being there. Just enjoy it.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by MarkBour » Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:27 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:39 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:58 pm
MarkBour wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:36 pm
Interesting thinking, Bruce and Ann. I wonder how its magnetosphere would have developed, whether the same or differently.
What magnetosphere Mark? As Ann pointed out Mars has no global magnetic field. That is and was Mars' problem, as far as habitablity is and was conserned. Therefore it can't hold onto it's water and much of its atmosphere either.
It did, for part of its existence. Had it formed at a different position, it's possible that its core might have evolved differently, and therefore that its magnetic field might have persisted longer.
  • Yes, Bruce, that's what I was wondering about. Chris, it's interesting to hear it is a possibility.
  • Art, I'm still wrestling with your reference ... I guess planets without continents are incontinent. :-)
  • I wonder if exoplanet studies will be able to study the development of magnetic fields of planets. For many things in astronomy, I start out thinking "I can't imagine how they would be able to detect something like that from 100 light years away", and then later I find out some ingenious scientist is doing just that.
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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by rstevenson » Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:50 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:15 am All the video is doing is providing annotations. Otherwise, it's an ordinary pano file already. Just pause the video (around 1 minute there's no annotation). Then you can explore the dataset as much as you want. That is, the video does not need to be playing to use the pano feature.
Thank you, Chris. That didn't (and never would have) occurred to me.

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Re: APOD: Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge (2018 Sep 10)

Post by Ann » Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:15 pm

MarkBour wrote: Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:27 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:39 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:58 pm

What magnetosphere Mark? As Ann pointed out Mars has no global magnetic field. That is and was Mars' problem, as far as habitablity is and was conserned. Therefore it can't hold onto it's water and much of its atmosphere either.
It did, for part of its existence. Had it formed at a different position, it's possible that its core might have evolved differently, and therefore that its magnetic field might have persisted longer.
  • Yes, Bruce, that's what I was wondering about. Chris, it's interesting to hear it is a possibility.
  • Art, I'm still wrestling with your reference ... I guess planets without continents are incontinent. :-)
  • I wonder if exoplanet studies will be able to study the development of magnetic fields of planets. For many things in astronomy, I start out thinking "I can't imagine how they would be able to detect something like that from 100 light years away", and then later I find out some ingenious scientist is doing just that.
And planets that can't hold on to their gases and liquids are probably incontinent. :wink:

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