Mars Science Laboratory

The latest Mars rover, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is scheduled for launch in 2011. Its main duty is to determine if the red planet was ever, or is still today, capable of supporting life. MSL will collect dozens of soil and rock samples. Its onboard laboratory will analyze the samples in the hope of discovering the chemical building blocks of life (such as forms of carbon).

MSL is about the same size as a Mini Cooper car, making it the largest Mars rover ever built. Named “Curiosity,” it will travel farther and over rougher terrain than Spirit and Opportunity, the rovers now exploring Mars.

Artist concept courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech

Kepler

Kepler, NASA's latest space telescope, was launched in March 2009. Capable of detecting objects Earth-size and smaller, it has been searching distant stars for planets similar to our own.

Specifically, Kepler is looking for Earth-like planets within a solar system's "habitable zone." Determined by the planet’s distance from its star, this zone maintains a temperature range that allows liquid water to exist on a planet's surface.

On August 26, 2010, mission scientists announced the discovery of two planets transiting, or crossing in front of, the same star. Examining data for the sun-like star Kepler-9, they found tiny decreases in its brightness that occur when a planet transits a star.

Artist's concept courtesy of NASA

Opportunity’s First Dust Devil

After six and a half years on the red planet, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has finally found its first dust devil (arrow). The rover captured this image during a drive through the plains of Meridiani, on its 2,301st Martian day or sol (July 15, 2010).

As on Earth, dust devils form when ground heated by sunlight warms the air above it, causing the air to rise. The hot rising air forms an updraft, which begins to whirl. On Mars, dust devils usually form in late spring or summer.

Halfway around the planet, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has observed dozens of dust devils in Gusev Crater. The rougher and dustier surface there allows dust devils to form more readily.

Image courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech/Cornell University/Texas A&M

• COMETS and ASTEROIDS
  July, 2010
• MIMAS, MARS AND PLUTO
  April, 2010
• TITAN, LRO AND MRO
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• Block Island And Chandrayaan-1
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• Planetary Research Milestones
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• Phoenix Mars Lander
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• Planetary Mission Updates
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• Pluto Downgraded
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• The Latest in Planetary Missions
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• MESSENGER Update
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• Deep Space Missions
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• Stardust
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• A Closer Look at a Volcano on Io
  November, 1999
• NASA Approves Mission To Mercury
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• First Image From Landsat 7 Earth Remote Sensing Satellite
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• Mars Global Surveyor Mapping Mission Begins
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• STARDUST: Mission To A Comet
  February, 1999.
• Galileo Reveals Process Behind Formation of Jupiter's Rings
  September 15, 1998.
• Possible Extrasolar Planet Imaged by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope
  May 28, 1998