[ad_1]
This composite selfie was taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument (IUVS) aboard the NASA Mars Orbiter. Lines are sketched to show approximately where the spacecraft components can not be imaged because of the limited movement of the instrument around its support arm.
Credit: University of Colorado / NASA
Here is a nice twist on the selfie of Mars-explorer.
We usually see photos that robots such as NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers are on the surface of the red planet. But the agency has just released a shot that the spacecraft MAVEN took himself into orbit Martian.
The new image is a composite of 21 photos taken in ultraviolet light by the MAUV imagery ultraviolet spectrograph (IUVS), which sits at the end of a 1.2-meter dam ( 3.9 feet) long. The IUVS generally monitors emissions from the upper atmosphere of Mars, but the MAVEN team has returned the instrument to get the selfie. [The Top 10 Space Robot Selfies Ever]
NASA officials released the image September 21 – the fourth anniversary of the arrival of the spacecraft on Mars to study the upper atmosphere of the red planet and its interaction with the solar wind, the flow of charged particles continually from the sun.
This image identifies the different parts of the MAVEN spacecraft selfie, with an illustration of the spacecraft for comparison purposes. The individual components are identified in both the selfie and the illustration. The computer generated image shows the UVIS, but the instrument is not visible in the selfie as it took the picture. (Electra is a communication antenna.)
Credit: University of Colorado / NASA
MAVEN – whose name is the abbreviation of "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution" – has accomplished a great deal during these four years. For example, the observations of the spacecraft show that atmospheric stripping by the solar wind played a key role in the passage of the red planet from a relatively hot and humid world a long time ago to cold place and dry where it is today.
This transition was probably more or less complete by about 3.7 billion years, said the MAVEN team members.
MAVEN data further indicate that strong solar storms swayed this background atmospheric stripping by accelerating the loss of air molecules in the space by a factor of 10 or more.
This image shows part of the MAVEN spacecraft and the Mars branch in the background. This is one of the individual images that make up the MAVEN selfie, showing the magnetometer and the solar collector at the end of the solar panel. The dark spot at the top of the image is the Mars Olympus Mons volcano.
Credit: University of Colorado / NASA
The mission, launched in November 2013, also discovered two new types of auroras on Mars, different from the celestial light shows we are used to on Earth. And the MAVEN data suggest that the red planet has lost so much carbon dioxide in space that humans will not be able to terraform Mars by releasing CO.2 trapped in rocks and polar ice caps in the atmosphere. [Photos: NASA’s MAVEN Mission to Mars]
"MAVEN has been a huge success," senior mission researcher Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado at Boulder said in a statement. "The spacecraft and instruments continue to function as planned and we look forward to further exploring the high Martian atmosphere and its influence on the climate."
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @ michaeldwall and Google+. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally posted on Space.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
