NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured an incredible image of layered, flaky rocks that may have formed in either an ancient streambed or small pond. A total of six images were combined to make this mosaic and all were captured using Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 2, 2022, the 3,492nd Martian day (sol) of the mission.
For most of 2021, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traversing a transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty mineral called sulfate. The science team targeted the clay-rich region and the sulfate-laden one to find out more about Mars’ watery past. However, this transition zone is also proving to be scientifically intriguing, since it may provide the record of a major shift in Mars’ climate billions of years ago. The Perseverance rover is already drilling and collecting Martian rock samples.
Sale
Celestron – NexStar 127SLT Computerized Telescope – Compact and Portable – Maksutov-Cassegrain Optical Design – SkyAlign Technology – Computerized Hand Control – 127mm Aperture
- Computerized star locating telescope: The Celestron NexStar 127SLT is a computerized telescope that offers a database of more than 40,000 stars, galaxies, nebulae, and more. The telescope locates your object with pinpoint accuracy and tracks it.
- Compact and portable: This telescope for adults and kids to be used together is ideal for weekend camping trips or excursions to dark sky sites. Its compact form factor makes it easy to transport and assemble just about anywhere.Optical Tube:Aluminum
- Maksutov-cassegrain optical design: The NexStar 127SLT is the second-largest in the SLT family. The 127mm aperture gathers enough light to see our Solar System and beyond. View Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s cloud bands, and the Moon in brilliant detail.
- Fast setup with skyalign: Celestron’s proprietary SkyAlign procedure has you ready to observe in minutes. Simply center any 3 bright objects in the eyepiece and the NexStar SLT aligns to the night sky, ready to locate thousands of objects.
- Bonus free starry night software: The NexStar 127SLT Computerized Telescope includes a free download of one of the top consumer rated astronomy software programs for an interactive sky simulation.
We no longer see the lake deposits that we saw for years lower on Mount Sharp. Instead, we see lots of evidence of drier climates, like dry dunes that occasionally had streams running around them. That’s a big change from the lakes that persisted for perhaps millions of years before,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
