Getting closer to Life on Mars?

NASA's Mars explorer, Curiosity, was able to analyze some rock samples and the results indicate that Mars could have supported life living microbes in the past.  Using it's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments it was able to identify sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon which are some of the key chemical ingredients for life,  The sample was drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater. 

Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability."  It landed on mars Aug. 5 2012.  The rover's battery should give it an operating lifespan of about 1 Mars year which is about 687 Earth days.
So what  do you think this discovery means?  Leave some comments tell me what you think.

Hubble telescope finds space invader

It appears one of the alien invaders from the classic arcade game Space Invaders is out roaming the galaxy and the Hubble telescope got him on camera.  The galaxy is a spiral galaxy.  The image was taken in infrared light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.  Due to an effect called gravitational lensing light is bent and distorted by gravity.  The gravitational field surrounding galaxy cluster Abell 68, which is a massive collection of galaxies about 3 billion light years away, is what is causing the distortion.  You can see a second, less distorted image of the same galaxy to the left of the alien invader.  Here's a link to the full-resolution image of the cluster.

Comet PanSTARRS

Comet 2011 L4 PanSTARRS imaged from Argentina by Luis Argerich on February 13th, 2013

In 2013 there will be two comets which will be visible with the naked eye.  The first one, Comet PanSTARRS, will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere as early as March 6 or 7.  You will be able to locate it about 1 degree above the western horizon 30 minutes after sunset.  It will continue to get 1 or 2 degrees higher each night.  On March 9th it will be closest to our Sun, a mear 28 million miles or about 45 million kilometers.  This is when it should be its brightest.  It should be visible with the naked eye until the end or March, after that you will need binoculars or a telescope.

The closest this comet will be to Earth will be on March 5 when it will be only 102 million miles from our home.  This comet was discovered on June 6th, 2011 and recieved the designation "C/2011 L4".  It was first spotted by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System on Haleakala in Hawaii and recieved its secondary name, PANSTARRS, which is the instrument’s acronym.

In November and December Comet ISON will pass by us.  This comet will be bright enough to see it during the day.



Hello

Hello, my name is Anthony.  I'm a student at the College of Southeren Nevada. One of the classes I'm currently in is astronomy.  I've been interested in astronomy for a lonng time but finially decided to take a class on the subject.  I starting this blog to share some interesting things about astronomy that I learn.  If you have any questions or anything to share please leave me comments.