Gediz Vallis

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

Earth planning date: Monday, Oct. 28, 2024 Before the science team starts planning, we first look at the latest Navcam image downlinked from Curiosity to see where the rover is located. It can be all too easy to get lost in the scenery of the Navcam and find new places in the distance we want […]

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024 The rover is on its way from the Tungsten Hills site to the next priority site for Gediz Vallis channel exploration, in which we plan to get in close enough for arm science to one of the numerous large dark-toned "float" blocks in the channel and also to […]

Scientists were stunned on May 30 when a rock that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to reveal something never seen before on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur crystals.

Earth planning date: Monday, April 29, 2024 On this two sol-planning day, the Curiosity science team logged in and found ourselves face to face with 'Pinnacle Ridge' (pictured above), part of the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge (uGVR). We saw two types of rocks in our workspace: light-toned layered rocks and darker toned rocks. Rocks that […]

Curiosity continues to make progress along the margin of upper Gediz Vallis ridge, investigating the broken bedrock in our workspace and acquiring images of the ridge deposit as the rover drives south.

Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 Curiosity continues to make progress along the margin of upper Gediz Vallis ridge, investigating the broken bedrock in our workspace and acquiring images of the ridge deposit as the rover drives south. Today's 2-sol plan focused on a DRT, contact science, and drive on the first sol, followed […]

Did NASA's Curiosity rover find dragon bones on Mars? Nah. But these wonderfully weird spiky rocks are some of the strangest formations the rovers have seen. The post Dragon bones on Mars? Curiosity spies weird rocks first appeared on EarthSky.

Curiosity has just finished the latest leg of its 12-year Mars mission and will now set out to explore miles of web-like surface features left behind by ancient water on the Red Planet. The zig-zagging rocks could also provide clues about whether Mars once harbored extraterrestrial life.

Earth planning date: Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 After a spooky week last week, it's great to see all our weekend plans succeed as planned! We don't take success for granted as a rover going on 13 years. With all of the science at our fingertips and all the battery power we could need, the team […]

Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 25, 2024 The changes to the plan Wednesday, moving the drive a sol earlier, meant that we started off planning this morning about 18 meters (about 59 feet) farther along the western edge of Gediz Vallis and with all the data we needed for planning. This included the knowledge that […]

Earth planning date: Monday, Sept. 30, 2024 For the past few plans, Curiosity has been wrapping up its science campaign within Gediz Vallis. Over the weekend, the rover completed analyses on white stones encountered while departing the channel, before continuing along the western margin of Gediz Vallis. As we exit the channel, a metaphorical red […]

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 30, 2024 Our backwards drive to "McDonald Pass" got hung up on the steep slopes of "Fairview Dome," but unlike a lot of movie sequels, our inadvertent return visit to Fairview Dome was at least as good as the original. We took full advantage of the chance to investigate this […]

Earth planning date: Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024 Curiosity has returned to "McDonald Pass," a block within Gediz Vallis that we first spotted about a month ago (as seen in the above Front Hazcam image). The block shows some interesting zonation — the distribution of textures and colors into different areas, or zones. We're hoping that […]

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 2, 2024 Prepare your party poppers, horns, and confetti! On Aug. 6 (EDT), after 4,265 Martian sols since Curiosity first landed in Gale Crater, the rover will be turning 12 years old. I still remember the excitement of watching Curiosity's landing back when I started high school. Now, as a […]

The rover Curiosity found sulfur crystals in a Martian rock for the first time. Researchers say they shouldn't be there and are seeking an explanation. The post Martian rock crushed by Curiosity hides a surprise! first appeared on EarthSky.

While surveying the site of an ancient channel on Mars, the Curiosity rover ran over a rock and discovered pure sulfur on the red planet for the first time.

The NASA Curiosity rover has revealed what it's like to spend an entire day on Mars.

"I can't imagine what it would have been like to witness these events."

This spot on Mars has preserved information about ancient landslides and evidence of Red Planet water.