"One of my favorite Curiosity targets is called 'Bonanza King,' which is named after the Bonanza King Rock formation near Death Valley." "Drilled rock samples that Perseverance has dropped for collection also have names like 'Bearwallow," which is named after a hiking trail in Shenandoah National Park," Seeger continued. While the Curiosity team has selected names from South America and Scotland, Perseverance's handlers pick names from national parks around the world. Perseverance rover collects Mars samples rich in 'organic matter' for future return to Earth Happy anniversary, Perseverance! NASA rover marks 2 years on Mars Water on Mars: Exploration and evidence "We draw a grid on the map where each square is a different quadrant that represents a different theme." "But now we compile a list of names ahead of time based on different themes," she added. "In the '90s, they came up with names on the fly, and that's why you got silly names like 'Barnacle Bill' 'Indiana Jones.' Going back to Pathfinder, a rock looked like the face of Yogi Bear and got the name 'Yogi Rock,'" she said, referring to NASA's Pathfinder lander-rover mission, which landed on Mars in 1997. While this may seem arbitrary, Seeger said it's an improvement over how names were chosen in the past. "Smaller features like rocks, cliffs, meteorites - those get nicknames chosen by the rover teams that are not official, but they do stick." Small craters on Mars must be named after small towns," Seeger pointed out. "Official names get assigned by the International Astronomical Union, which has strict guidelines for features across the whole solar system. While Jezero and Bela are official names, "Ubajara" is a nickname - an unofficial moniker. Perseverance's older cousin Curiosity recently drilled a rock sample from a location known as "Ubajara," which is named after a national park in Brazil. Jezero, meanwhile, means "lake" in many Slavic languages. As an example, the Perseverance rover is currently investigating rock outcrops alongside the rim of Belva Crater, a large impact crater within the even larger Jezero Crater.īelva is named after a town in West Virginia, which in turn is named after Belva Ann Lockwood, an American lawyer who was one of the first women in the U.S. Some are given official names, while others receive nicknames. There are two main categories of names given to objects on Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) Examples of Martian names This process actually helps scientists on Earth determine their precise height in the sky.The Curiosity Mars rover snapped this selfie at Mont Mercou, which is named after a mountain in France, in March 2021. That’s because they’re made of ice crystals, and only darken completely once the sun drops below their altitude. The twilight clouds, which are also known as noctilucent or “night shining” in Latin, glow brightly against the darkening sky during sunset. These pics were snapped as part of NASA’s twilight cloud survey, which began in January and will run through mid-March. Along with being visually stunning, the image also builds off of research in Martian cloud formation and gives scientists insight into the weather patterns on Earth’s neighbor. 2, and shows sunbeams-known as crepuscular rays-shooting through clouds in dramatic fashion. The pics were taken as the sun set over Mars on Feb. Case in point: The workhorse rover recently snapped some of the clearest images of sun rays on Mars yet. Despite being more than a decade old, NASA’s Curiosity rover is still delivering stunning images and insights from the surface of the Red Planet.
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