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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 NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4,587 (2025-07-02 07:33:39 UTC). NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Lucy Thompson, APXS Collaborator and Senior Research Scientist at the University of New Brunswick, Canada
Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 2, 2025
As we traverse the boxwork terrain, we are encountering a series of more resistant ridges/bedrock patches, and areas that are more rubbly and tend to form lower relief polygonal or trough-like features. We came into planning this morning in one of the trough-like features after another successful drive. The science team is interested in determining why we see these different geomorphological and erosional expressions. Is the rock that comprises the more resistant ridges and patches a different composition to the rock in the troughs and low relief areas? How do the rocks vary texturally? Might the resistant bedrock be an indicator of what we will encounter when we reach the large boxworks that we are driving towards?
We managed to find a large enough area of rock to safely brush (target – “Guapay”), after which we will place APXS and MAHLI to determine the composition and texture. ChemCam will also analyze a different rock target, “Taltal” for chemistry and texture, and we will also acquire an accompanying Mastcam documentation image. The resistant ridge that we are planning to drive towards (“Volcan Pena Blanca”) and eventually investigate will be captured in a Mastcam mosaic. ChemCam will utilize their long-distance imaging capabilities to image the “Mishe Mokwa” butte off to the southeast of our current location, which likely contains bedrock layers that we will eventually pass through as we continue our climb up Mount Sharp.
After a planned drive, taking us closer to the “Volcan Pena Blanca” ridge, MARDI will image the new terrain beneath the wheels, before we execute some atmospheric observations. Mastcam will make a tau observation to monitor dust in the atmosphere and Navcam will acquire a zenith movie. Standard DAN, RAD and REMS activities round out the plan.
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Explore This SectionScience Europa Clipper Europa: Ocean World Europa Clipper Home MissionOverview Facts History Timeline ScienceGoals Team SpacecraftMeet Europa Clipper Instruments Assembly Vault Plate Message in a Bottle NewsNews & Features Blog Newsroom Replay the Launch MultimediaFeatured Multimedia Resources About EuropaWhy Europa? Europa Up Close Ingredients for Life Evidence for an Ocean To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Scientists think there is an ocean within Jupiter’s moon Europa. NASA-JPL astrobiologist Kevin Hand explains why scientists are so excited about the potential of this ice-covered world to answer one of humanity’s most profound questions. Scientists think there is an ocean within Jupiter’s moon Europa. NASA-JPL astrobiologist Kevin Hand explains why scientists are so excited about the potential of this ice-covered world to answer one of humanity’s most profound questions.
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Explore This SectionScience Europa Clipper Reddish Bands on Europa Europa Clipper Home MissionOverview Facts History Timeline ScienceGoals Team SpacecraftMeet Europa Clipper Instruments Assembly Vault Plate Message in a Bottle NewsNews & Features Blog Newsroom Replay the Launch MultimediaFeatured Multimedia Resources About EuropaWhy Europa? Europa Up Close Ingredients for Life Evidence for an Ocean This colorized image of Europa is a product of clear-filter grayscale data from one orbit of NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute Downloads
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May 28, 2025
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This colorized image of Europa is a product of clear-filter grayscale data from one orbit of NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, combined with lower-resolution color data taken on a different orbit.
The blue-white terrains indicate relatively pure water ice, whereas the reddish areas contain water ice mixed with hydrated salts, potentially magnesium sulfate or sulfuric acid. The reddish material is associated with the broad band in the center of the image, as well as some of the narrower bands, ridges, and disrupted chaos-type features. It is possible that these surface features may have communicated with a global subsurface ocean layer during or after their formation.
Part of the terrain in this previously unreleased color view is seen in the monochrome image, PIA01125.
The image area measures approximately 101 by 103 miles (163 km by 167 km). The grayscale images were obtained on November 6, 1997, during the Galileo spacecraft’s 11th orbit of Jupiter, when the spacecraft was approximately 13,237 miles (21,700 kilometers) from Europa. These images were then combined with lower-resolution color data obtained in 1998, during the spacecraft’s 14th orbit of Jupiter, when the spacecraft was 89,000 miles (143,000 km) from Europa.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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Explore This SectionScience Europa Clipper Europa’s Stunning Surface Europa Clipper Home MissionOverview Facts History Timeline ScienceGoals Team SpacecraftMeet Europa Clipper Instruments Assembly Vault Plate Message in a Bottle NewsNews & Features Blog Newsroom Replay the Launch MultimediaFeatured Multimedia Resources About EuropaWhy Europa? Europa Up Close Ingredients for Life Evidence for an Ocean The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute Downloads
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May 28, 2025
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The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. This is the color view of Europa from Galileo that shows the largest portion of the moon’s surface at the highest resolution.
The view was previously released as a mosaic with lower resolution and strongly enhanced color (see PIA02590). To create this new version, the images were assembled into a realistic color view of the surface that approximates how Europa would appear to the human eye.
The scene shows the stunning diversity of Europa’s surface geology. Long, linear cracks and ridges crisscross the surface, interrupted by regions of disrupted terrain where the surface ice crust has been broken up and re-frozen into new patterns.
Color variations across the surface are associated with differences in geologic feature type and location. For example, areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice, while reddish and brownish areas include non-ice components in higher concentrations. The polar regions, visible at the left and right of this view, are noticeably bluer than the more equatorial latitudes, which look more white. This color variation is thought to be due to differences in ice grain size in the two locations.
Images taken through near-infrared, green and violet filters have been combined to produce this view. The images have been corrected for light scattered outside of the image, to provide a color correction that is calibrated by wavelength. Gaps in the images have been filled with simulated color based on the color of nearby surface areas with similar terrain types.
This global color view consists of images acquired by the Galileo Solid-State Imaging (SSI) experiment on the spacecraft’s first and fourteenth orbits through the Jupiter system, in 1995 and 1998, respectively. Image scale is 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) per pixel. North on Europa is at right.
The Galileo mission was managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
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Explore This SectionScience Europa Clipper Source Region for Possible… Europa Clipper Home MissionOverview Facts History Timeline ScienceGoals Team SpacecraftMeet Europa Clipper Instruments Assembly Vault Plate Message in a Bottle NewsNews & Features Blog Newsroom Replay the Launch MultimediaFeatured Multimedia Resources About EuropaWhy Europa? Europa Up Close Ingredients for Life Evidence for an Ocean A map centered at the estimated source region for potential plumes from Europa.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute Downloads
View All Europa Resources Hi-res
May 29, 2025
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This reprojection of the official USGS Europa basemap is centered at the estimated source region for potential plumes that might have been detected using the Hubble Space Telescope. The view is centered at -65 degrees latitude, 183 degrees longitude.
In addition to the plume source region, the image also shows the hemisphere of Europa that might be affected by plume deposits. This map is composed of images from NASA’s Galileo and Voyager missions. The black region near the south pole results from gaps in imaging coverage.
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