Up For Some Virtual Cloud Watching? ☁️

2020 March 1

A Hole in Mars Image Credit: NASA, JPL, U. Arizona

Explanation: What created this unusual hole in Mars? The hole was discovered by chance in 2011 on images of the dusty slopes of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The hole, shown in representative color, appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on the image right. Analysis of this and follow-up images revealed the opening to be about 35 meters across, while the interior shadow angle indicates that the underlying cavern is roughly 20 meters deep. Why there is a circular crater surrounding this hole remains a topic of speculation, as is the full extent of the underlying cavern. Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200301.html

Persy sings! How wonderful ☺️

What is the weirdest thing you had to account for when building the perseverance rover?

This is the Tarantula Nebula! 🕷🕸🕷🕸🕷🕸

This star forming region is so big that it is 160,000 light years across! At it’s center, there are a bunch of stars totalling 450,000 solar masses that produce the Tarantula Nebula’s high luminosity and will likely become a vibrant globular cluster. ✨✨✨

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Chile One telescope on November 16th, 2020 at 5:27 UTC.

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Comet Giacobini–Zinner and the Heart and Soul Nebulae

The best shot for the SuperMoon 2020.

Source: Ohrid, MK - Ohrid Astronomy Association.

📸🎥 stojan stojanovski.

Hello!! Its wonderful to be able to ask questions, thank you!

About Perseverance, does it have a self-repair option? And as Curiosity is still operational, will they run missions together? Or will they split up to cover more distance?

Is this a sign that we're close to being able to set foot on Mars?

My final question is how do you receive the messages from such a long distance?

Thanks for all your hard work! 加油/Good luck!

“Is this a sign that we are close to being able to set foot on Mars?”

Taurus Molecular Cloud