Conversation

Notices

1. Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod@botsin.space)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 18:36:27 JST Astronomy Picture of the Day

   Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited

   Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

   https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240323.html #APOD

   • Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod@botsin.space)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 18:37:21 JST Astronomy Picture of the Day

     in reply to

     This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in southern Acidalia Planitia. A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain, unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the scifi novel The Martian by Andy Weir.

   • Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod@botsin.space)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 18:37:53 JST Astronomy Picture of the Day

     in reply to

     The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3 landing site corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE frame. For scale Watney's 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course, the Ares 3 landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station, the 1997 Pathfinder landing site.

   • Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod@botsin.space)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 18:44:57 JST Astronomy Picture of the Day

     in reply to

     The APOD site has not updated with today's picture yet, which is why that link is broken and why I've added the image's explanation (which would normally be past the link) in the thread.

   • Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod@botsin.space)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 20:14:17 JST Astronomy Picture of the Day

     in reply to

     • Ed Summers

     @edsu Upcoming APODs are posted ahead of time to https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/fap/ so mirror operators have time to prepare. For instance, today's is https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/fap/ap240323.html

   • Ed Summers (edsu@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 20:14:18 JST Ed Summers

     in reply to

     @APoD thanks! Please permit this dumb question: how do you know what the image is going to be?!

   • Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod@botsin.space)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 23:22:49 JST Astronomy Picture of the Day

     in reply to

     • Ed Summers

     @edsu Yes, independent mirrors are a long running APOD tradition. The one hosted by UC London has been online since 1999! Many mirrors are translated into their local language, you can find a list here https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html

   • Ed Summers (edsu@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 23-Mar-2024 23:22:50 JST Ed Summers

     in reply to

     @APoD thanks for sharing that! I was just reading (in Wikipedia) about the mirrors that were active during the US government shutdown. I didn't realize that they were still going, and existed before the shutdown it sounds like?