![]() On Mars, the northern hemisphere’s spring and summer are longer than the fall and winter. This annual variation affects the timing of the red planet’s solstices and equinoxes. In addition, Mars’s orbit is less circular than Earth’s, which means that its orbital velocity varies more over the course of a Martian year. The angle of Mars’s axis of rotation also changes much more often than Earth's, which has led to swings in the Martian climate on timescales of thousands to millions of years. On Mars, a year lasts 669.6 sols, or 687 Earth days, and an individual season can last up to 194 sols, or just over 199 Earth days. This means that it takes Mars longer to complete a single orbit, stretching out its year and the lengths of its seasons. ![]() For one, Mars is on average about 50 percent farther from the sun than Earth is, with an average orbital distance of 142 million miles. At two specific moments each year-called the equinoxes-both hemispheres receive equal illumination.īut for several reasons, seasons on Mars are different from those on Earth. Whichever hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun experiences spring and summer, while the hemisphere tilted away gets fall and winter. Mars’s axis of rotation is tilted 25.2 degrees relative to the plane of the planet’s orbit around the sun, which helps give Mars seasons similar to those on Earth. Mars rotates on its axis every 24.6 Earth hours, defining the length of a Martian day, which is called a sol (short for “solar day”). This video explains what makes it so different from Earth and what would happen if humans lived there. They sit 9.5 inches (24.1 centimeters) apart to provide stereo vision and can produce color images with a quality similar to that of a consumer digital HD camera.Recent NASA exploratory expeditions revealed some of the red planet's biggest mysteries. The two cameras on Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z dual cameras are mounted on the rover’s mast at eye level for a person 6 feet, 6 inches (2 meters) tall. Mastcam-Z’s design is an evolution of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover’s Mastcam instrument, which has two cameras of fixed focal length rather than zoomable cameras. ![]() ASU leads operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. "We’re nestled right in a sweet spot, where you can see different features similar in many ways to features found by Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity at their landing sites," said Jim Bell of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, the instrument’s principal investigator. The detailed composite image shows a Martian surface that appears similar to images captured by previous NASA rover missions. The camera system can reveal details as small as 0.1 to 0.2 inches (3 to 5 millimeters) across near the rover and 6.5 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) across in the distant slopes along the horizon. Stitched together from 142 images, the newly released panorama reveals the crater rim and cliff face of an ancient river delta in the distance. The cameras also will help the mission team determine which rocks the rover should sample and collect for eventual return to Earth in the future. The cameras will help scientists assess the geologic history and atmospheric conditions of Jezero Crater and will assist in identifying rocks and sediment worthy of a closer look by the rover’s other instruments. With this capability, the robotic astrobiologist can provide a detailed examination of both close and distant objects. Mastcam-Z is a dual-camera system equipped with a zoom function, allowing the cameras to zoom in, focus, and take high-definition video, as well as panoramic color and 3D images of the Martian surface. It was the rover’s second panorama ever, as the rover’s Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, also located on the mast, captured a 360-degree view on Feb. 21, after rotating its mast, or “head,” 360 degrees, allowing the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument to capture its first panorama after touching down on the Red Planet on Feb 18. NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover got its first high-definition look around its new home in Jezero Crater on Feb. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 143 images taken on Sol 3 (February 21, 2021). The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 135-400mm Mastcam-Z camera. Sol 0003: NASA's Perseverance Rover Gives High-Definition Panoramic View of Landing Site NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)
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