A team including scientists from Italy, Bulgaria and the US and led by the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) in Northern Ireland has been studying the Trojans of Mars to understand what they tell us about the early history of the inner worlds of our solar system—the so-called terrestrial planets—but also to inform searches for Trojans of the Earth.
To find out the composition of the Mars Trojans, the team used X-SHOOTER, a spectrograph mounted on the European Southern Observatory 8-m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. X-SHOOTER looks at how the surface of the asteroid reflects sunlight of different colors—its reflectance spectrum.
While you're here, how about this:
Journey to the red planet: recap of webinar on NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission - The
Virtual webinar allowed attendees to join University of Alberta NASA sample scientist in learning about NASA's newest Mars perseverance rover mission.
Herd was selected in 2019 as a returned sample science participating scientist , which is a specialist in the analysis of return samples from Mars. This means he will be closely involved with the collection and caching of Martian rock core and dust samples, and their analysis once they are sent back to Earth.
SpaceX plan for own legal regime on Mars is dubious: space law expert - Business Insider
Though this may sound like a page taken out of a sci-fi novel, Elon Musk's aerospace company has indicated its intentions to do just that in two recent and remarkable posts.
"You can come up with many interesting examples where you have people trying to call themselves a state and not being recognized," von der Dunk told Business Insider.
Still, he thinks the international community should take SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk seriously — and use the moment to work out potential legal quandaries of such a fantastic human future before they're made real.
Space.com is going to 'Mars' on a HI-SEAS habitat simulation | Space
A group of six researchers will embark on a mission to "Mars" on Monday (Nov. 2). The Martian crew will include artists, scientists and ... me!
The crew will spend two-weeks traveling to a simulated Mars habitat. The mission, known as Sensoria M2, will take place at the HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) habitat on the side of the volcano Mauna Loa. All crew members will have completed a two-week quarantine and COVID-19 tests prior to flying to the habitat to reduce risk as Sensoria M2 is taking place during the coronavirus pandemic.
Many things are taking place:
Sensors on Mars 2020 Spacecraft Answer Long-Distance Call From Earth – NASA's Mars Exploration
Instruments tailored to co llect data during the descent of NASA's next rover through the Red Planet's atmosphere have been checked in flight.
On Oct. 8, 2020, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place, team members of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission waited for a reply from the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) suite onboard the spacecraft, which is currently en route to the Red Planet.
MEDLI2 is a collection of sensors that will measure aerothermal environments and thermal protection system material performance during the atmospheric entry phase of the Mars 2020 mission.
Mars is closer to Earth in October than it will be for another 15 years - CNN
(CNN) If you spied a fiery red star close to the full moon over the weekend, it was actually Mars shining its bright red light in the night sky.
Mars Opposition Brings The Planet Up Close, Shining Bright : NPR
NASA's diagram of Mars opposition shows the Sun, the Earth and Mars lining up every couple of years. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration hide caption
Stargazers perk up — Mars will look big and bright the coming week, as the sun, Earth and Mars line up close to a new moon on the night of Oct. 13.
The event that happens about every two years is called "opposition" in astronomy terms: the sun and Mars on opposite sides of Earth. From the earthling's perspective, according to NASA , Mars rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west, and would stay up in the sky the whole night, setting in the west just as the sun rises.
