Archive
Ephemeris: 09/16/2025 – NASA’s announcement of discovery that might be evidence for past life on Mars
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 7:50, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:24. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 2:29 tomorrow morning.
Turning from the current crisis last week, NASA last Thursday, announced the detection of Martian elements and minerals that could have been associated with life, when Mars was more hospitable for life billions of years ago. This was discovered by the Perseverance Rover in a dry (of course) river valley in the delta, where the river once flowed into Jezero crater. Further chemical analysis will have to wait until samples of the rock are returned to the earth. Perseverance has made core samples of the rock in question, but the problem is the mission to retrieve the samples has yet to be fully defined and may be canceled. This is due to a change in strategy for NASA for the de-emphasis of science by the current US administration.
The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.
Addendum
Falls workspace on sol 1217. The light-toned layered block contains the Cheyava
Falls natural surface target, the Apollo Temple abrasion and the Sapphire
Canyon core sample location. The Sapphire Canyon sample was collected
from approximately the same location as Cheyava Falls after analysis of the
target was completed. The darker-toned granular block contains
the Steamboat Mountain abrasion. Downhill is to the left on this image.
Mastcam-Z enhanced color RGB vertical projection mosaic from sol 1217,
sequence zcam09264, acquired at 110-mm focal length. Scale bar, 10 cm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. Caption edited from the September 11, 2025 Nature Article Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars.
Link to the article: Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09413-0
Link to the paper: Hurowitz, J.A., Tice, M.M., Allwood, A.C. et al. Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars. Nature 645, 332–340 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0
02/16/2021 – Ephemeris – Perseverance lands on Mars in two days
This is Ephemeris for Fat Tuesday, Tuesday, February 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 6:13, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:39. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 11:24 this evening.
In two days, Thursday afternoon, the Perseverance Rover will land on the planet Mars in a crater call Jezero. It’s mission to actually look for evidence of past life, fill specimen tubes to be cached for later pickup and returned to earth by a future mission, presumably by the end of the decade. It is also bringing a helicopter drone named Ingenuity to check out the feasibility of using future aircraft in Mars rarefied atmosphere. The vehicle, including the back shell and descent stage sports 23 cameras. Even Ingenuity has 2 cameras. That shouldn’t be a big deal today. Heck, my smartphone has 5 cameras, each with lots more megapixels than the digital camera I bought 15 years ago. Only two days to go to landing.
The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Graphic of the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) of the Perseverance Rover. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 