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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4584 – 4585: Just a Small Bump
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on June 27, 2025 — Sol 4582, or Martian day 4,582 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 05:28:57 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Abigail Fraeman, Deputy Project Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Friday, June 27, 2025
We weren’t able to unstow Curiosity’s robotic arm on Wednesday because of some potentially unstable rocks under Curiosity’s wheels, but we liked the rocks at Wednesday’s location enough that we decided to spend a sol repositioning the rover so that we’d have another chance today to analyze them. The small adjustment of the rover’s position, or “bump,” as we like to call it during tactical planning, was successful, and we found ourselves in a nice stable pose this morning which allowed us to use our highly capable robotic arm to observe the rocks in front of us.
We will be collecting APXS and MAHLI observations of two targets today. The first, “Santa Elena,” is the bumpy rock that caught our eye on Wednesday. The second, informally named “Estancia Allkamari,” is a patch of nearby sand. We’ll analyze this target to understand if and how the sand composition has changed as we’ve driven across Mount Sharp, and to better help us understand how sand may be contributing to future compositional measurements that cover mixtures of sand and rock. MAHLI and ChemCam will team up to observe a third target named “Ticatica,” which is another bumpy rock nearby that looks like it might have a dark patch on its side.
This is the final weekend of this Martian year when temperature and relative humidity in Gale crater hit the sweet spot where conditions are right for frost to form in the pre-dawn hours. We’re taking this last opportunity to see if we can catch any evidence of frost with the ChemCam laser, shooting a sandy (and hopefully cold) portion of the ground in the pre-dawn hours on a target named “Rio Huasco.” Other activities in the plan include atmospheric monitoring, Mastcam mosaics, including a 20 x 3 mosaic of the large boxwork structures in the distance, and a short drive to the southwest to check out a rocky raised ridge.
For more Curiosity blog posts, visit MSL Mission Updates
Learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments
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Last Updated Jul 01, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Sigrid Reinsch, Lori Munar, Kevin Sims, and Matthew Fladeland. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond.
Space Biosciences Star: Sigrid Reinsch
As Director of the SHINE (Space Health Impacts for the NASA Experience) program and Project Scientist for NBISC (NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection), Sigrid Reinsch is a high-performing scientist and outstanding mentor in the Space Biosciences Research Branch. Her dedication to student training and her efforts to streamline processes have significantly improved the experience of welcoming summer interns at NASA Ames.
Space Science and Astrobiology Star: Lori Munar
Lori Munar serves as the assistant Branch Chief of the Exobiology Branch. In the past few months, she has gone above and beyond to organize a facility and laboratory surplus event that involved multiple divisions over multiple days. The event resulted in considerable savings across the groups involved and improved the safety of N239 staff and the appearance of offices and labs.
Space Science and Astrobiology Star: Kevin Sims
Kevin Sims is a NASA Technical Project Manager serving the Astrophysics Branch as a member of the Flight Systems Implementation Branch in the Space Biosciences Division. Kevin is recognized for outstanding project management for exoplanet imaging instrumentation development in support of the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Kevin has streamlined, organized, and improved the efficiency of the Ames Photonics Testbed being developed as part the AstroPIC Early Career Initiative project.
Earth Science Star: Matthew Fladeland
Matthew Fladeland is a research scientist in the Earth Science Division managing NASA SMD’s Program Office for the Airborne Science Program, located at Ames. He is recognized for exemplary leadership and teamwork leading to new reimbursable agreements with the Department of Defense, for accelerating science technology solutions through the SBIR program, and for advancing partnerships with the US Forest Service on wildland ecology and fire science.
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By NASA
ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth The light that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collected to create this image reached the telescope after a journey of 250 million years. Its source was the spiral galaxy UGC 11397, which resides in the constellation Lyra (The Lyre). At first glance, UGC 11397 appears to be an average spiral galaxy: it sports two graceful spiral arms that are illuminated by stars and defined by dark, clumpy clouds of dust.
What sets UGC 11397 apart from a typical spiral lies at its center, where a supermassive black hole containing 174 million times the mass of our Sun grows. As a black hole ensnares gas, dust, and even entire stars from its vicinity, this doomed matter heats up and puts on a fantastic cosmic light show.
Material trapped by the black hole emits light from gamma rays to radio waves, and can brighten and fade without warning. But in some galaxies, including UGC 11397, thick clouds of dust hide much of this energetic activity from view in optical light. Despite this, UGC 11397’s actively growing black hole was revealed through its bright X-ray emission — high-energy light that can pierce the surrounding dust. This led astronomers to classify it as a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy, a category used for active galaxies whose central regions are hidden from view in visible light by a donut-shaped cloud of dust and gas.
Using Hubble, researchers will study hundreds of galaxies that, like UGC 11397, harbor a supermassive black hole that is gaining mass. The Hubble observations will help researchers weigh nearby supermassive black holes, understand how black holes grew early in the universe’s history, and even study how stars form in the extreme environment found at the very center of a galaxy.
Text credit: ESA
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth
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By NASA
2 min read
Hubble Captures an Active Galactic Center
This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy UGC 11397. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth The light that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collected to create this image reached the telescope after a journey of 250 million years. Its source was the spiral galaxy UGC 11397, which resides in the constellation Lyra (The Lyre). At first glance, UGC 11397 appears to be an average spiral galaxy: it sports two graceful spiral arms that are illuminated by stars and defined by dark, clumpy clouds of dust.
What sets UGC 11397 apart from a typical spiral lies at its center, where a supermassive black hole containing 174 million times the mass of our Sun grows. As a black hole ensnares gas, dust, and even entire stars from its vicinity, this doomed matter heats up and puts on a fantastic cosmic light show.
Material trapped by the black hole emits light from gamma rays to radio waves, and can brighten and fade without warning. But in some galaxies, including UGC 11397, thick clouds of dust hide much of this energetic activity from view in optical light. Despite this, UGC 11397’s actively growing black hole was revealed through its bright X-ray emission — high-energy light that can pierce the surrounding dust. This led astronomers to classify it as a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy, a category used for active galaxies whose central regions are hidden from view in visible light by a donut-shaped cloud of dust and gas.
Using Hubble, researchers will study hundreds of galaxies that, like UGC 11397, harbor a supermassive black hole that is gaining mass. The Hubble observations will help researchers weigh nearby supermassive black holes, understand how black holes grew early in the universe’s history, and even study how stars form in the extreme environment found at the very center of a galaxy.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Jun 27, 2025 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured compelling evidence of a planet with a mass similar to Saturn orbiting the young nearby star TWA 7.
If confirmed, this would represent Webb’s first direct image discovery of a planet, and the lightest planet ever seen with this technique.
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