NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity Begins Study of Martian Crater

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The initial work of NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity at its new location on Mars shows surface compositional differences from anything the robot has studied in its first 7.5 years of exploration.

Opportunity arrived three weeks ago at the rim of a 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater named Endeavour. The first rock it examined is flat-topped and about the size of a footstool. It was apparently excavated by an impact that dug a crater the size of a tennis court into the crater’s rim. The rock was informally named “Tisdale 2.”

Full Story: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-274

Astronomers Find Ice and Possibly Methane on Snow White, a Distant Dwarf Planet

An artist's conception of 2007 OR10, nicknamed Snow White. Astronomers suspect that its rosy color is due to the presence of irradiated methane. Credit: NASA

Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the dwarf planet 2007 OR10—nicknamed Snow White—is an icy world, with about half its surface covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient, slush-spewing volcanoes. The new findings also suggest that the red-tinged dwarf planet may be covered in a thin layer of methane, the remnants of an atmosphere that’s slowly being lost into space.

Full Story: http://news.caltech.edu/press_releases/13445

New Rover Snapshots Capture Endeavour Crater Vistas

'Ridout' Rock on Rim of Odyssey Crater. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured new images of intriguing Martian terrain from a small crater near the rim of the large Endeavour crater. The rover arrived at the 13-mile-diameter (21-kilometer-diameter) Endeavour on Aug. 9, after a journey of almost three years.

 

 

Full Story: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-259