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sharponlooker.net
V Martín
@sharponlooker.net
120 followers 74 following 180 posts
https://mastodon.social/@sharponlooker
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Reposted by V Martín
sharponlooker.net
The "translucent ripples" effect, I hadn't felt it since the Valinor ripples where Ingenuity now lays.
Crop of the OP photo focused on a large ripple and its bifurcations seen longitudinally. The color treatment and the ripple structure make it look as if the ripples' insides are glowing.
November 27, 2025 at 8:32 PM
sharponlooker.net
#JezeroAstrotourists thus far in bsky
sharponlooker.net V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Dec 16
For today's #ArtAdventCalendar, the "astrotourists in Jezero crater" series

From 2022, 2023 & 2024 : "Dasein", "Tourist at Kodiak", "Map of the Jezero Delta, Tolkien-style", "Not My Best Side"

All finger- or styluspainted on tablet with #SketchbookApp
"Dasein" Digital painting: closeup of an astronaut contemplating the northern side of Kodiak butte, their helmet visor heavily distorting the view "Tourist at Kodiak" Digital painting of a cross-bedded layer of Kodiak butte. An astronaut in full suit stands in the midst of it reading a signpost that, according to this version's caption, reads "Please don't lick the rocks" "Map of the Jezero Delta, Tolkien-style" Digital drawing of a schematic map of the Jezero delta and surroundings, something you might get at the souvenir store? Some features retain their mission names (Kodiak, Cape Nukshak, Whale Mountain, Cape Sable, Rocky Top, Three Forks, Delta Front), others get a "tolkienized", half-joking variant (Belva's Bottom, Carbonaith for the Margin Unit, Neretva Vallis becomes NoRet Valley and the rim becomes Craterrimrim). Dragonera shows a dragon on top and Cabrera a goat, obviously. By the sample depot, there's a stick figure of the backshell and the parachute. "Not My Best Side" Digital painting of two astronauts taking photographs on a ridge overlooking the west side of Kodiak butte
November 27, 2025 at 9:54 AM
sharponlooker.net
Snodgrass et al: "Considerations on the process of target selection for the
@cometinterceptor.bsky.social
mission"
arxiv.org/abs/2511.20521

#PlanetSci #PlanetaryScience #CometInterceptorMission
Table 1 from the linked paper, spacecraft constraints. Encounter can't be far from 1AU. First paragraph of section 2.3, Dynamical Constraints. LPC = long period comet, DNC = dynamically new comet, ISO = interstellar object. Highlighted line is about the unlikelihood that the spacecraft will encounter an ISO.
November 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by V Martín
spacemarschall.net
Hey #planetSci friends, the end of the year is nearing. Does anyone want to help me put together an Image of the Year Bracket?

If you want to propose your favourite planetary science image of 2025, place it below with a link to the source and when it was published.
Bracket for "BSky Planetary Science Image of 2025" contest, featuring small icon of 16 boxes with question marks grouped into four quarter-finals. There are finalist placeholders against a lunar surface backdrop.
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
sharponlooker.net
@wierzchos.bsky.social qué sorpresa encontrarte referido en un paper sobre coatings en Marte, se me había olvidado a lo que se dedicaba tu padre 😉

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Microbial colonization of Ca‐sulfate crusts in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert: implications for the search for life on Mars
The scarcity of liquid water in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert makes this region one of the most challenging environments for life on Earth. The low numbers of microbial cells in the soils ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 26, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by V Martín
stuartatkinson.bsky.social
Yesterday Curiosity took pix of jagged peaks in the distance with its ChemCam. I stitched them together, did some work on them, and... just look at that view... I've been doing this since Sojourner landed & this is one of my fave images ever... Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/S Atkinson
September 23, 2025 at 8:48 PM
sharponlooker.net
Quick & dirty animation of pre- and post-abrasion WATSON photos by #PerseveranceRover on sols 1630 & 1631. Based on treated images by 65dBnoise:

mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/1...

mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/1...
September 22, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by V Martín
ticeonmars.bsky.social
I've been asked a few times over the last few days what I think the chances are that the "leopard spots and poppy seeds" on Mars will turn out to be actual evidence of life. People are naturally skeptical given the history of possible signs of life on other planets. Strap in: long thread ahead...
Image collected by WATSON on the Perseverance rover of "Cheyava Falls," a rock on Mars containing potential biosignatures
September 16, 2025 at 5:10 AM
sharponlooker.net
Today I happened to leave Jezero crater 🙃

(mastodon.social/@sharponlook...)
A road sign deep in Sweden pointing to, among other places, Ulricehamn, namesake of one of the minor craters right outside Jezero crater on Mars.
September 16, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by V Martín
timdemko.xyz
After poking around and finding the base of the flow, the story became much richer: the basalt had flowed over some eolian dunes which sourced the water for the hydrothermal system. The sand might have accumulated as obstacle dunes around a bedrock hill, then buried by the flow in a valley. (2/2)
Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. the contact is very sharp. There is ddesert vegetation, including saguaro cacti visible in the background. Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. The basalt exhibits intense fracturing, with light colored fracture fills. the contact is very sharp. There is an archaeologist (Madi Whalen) for scale. Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. The basalt exhibits intense fracturing, with light colored fracture fills. There is an archaeologist (Madi Whalen) for scale. Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. The basalt exhibits intense fracturing, especially at the contact with the underlying sandstone, with light colored fracture fills. The units and the contact are offset by a small vertical fault.
September 9, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by V Martín
astrafoxen.bsky.social
The IAU announced official names for Donaldjohanson's surface & shape features 2 weeks ago, but nobody has mentioned the news. They're all named after archeological sites and hominin fossils, which is fun and awesome haha

(Afar Lobus = small lobe, Olduvai Lobus = big lobe, Windover Collum = neck)
Lucy image of asteroid Donaldjohanson, with features labeled with their formal names approved by the IAU A screenshot of the IAU's announcement of 11 new names for Donaldjohanson's surface+shape features. The text reads: 11 Names Approved for (52246) Donaldjohanson: Afar Lobus, Olduvai Lobus, Hadar Regio, Minatogawa Regio, Luzia Dorsum, Boxgrove Saxum, Kennewick Saxum, Cashel Saxum, Mungo, Narmada, and Windover Collum 08/27/2025 The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the names Afar Lobus, Olduvai Lobus, Hadar Regio, Minatogawa Regio, Luzia Dorsum, Boxgrove Saxum, Mungo, Narmada, Kennewick Saxum, Cashel Saxum, and Windover Collum for eleven features on the asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson. For more information, please see the Donaldjohanson nomenclature map in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
September 9, 2025 at 7:11 AM
sharponlooker.net
There's a lot happening in that closeup, great color work!

But don't zoom & rotate too much, maybe you get a scare 😬
Hugely zoomed part of the photo, rotated to show a rock bit that looks like a spooky head flashing its teeth. Reminds a little of Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein.
September 1, 2025 at 9:02 AM
sharponlooker.net
Impact crater caused by (possibly) a piece of #PerseveranceRover cruise stage.

Comparison between HIRISE images from 2012, 2021 and 2024. Approximately 70km NW of #JezeroCrater: muted.uni-muenster.de?x=76.208&y=1...

🧵 1/2

#PlanetaryScience
Greyscale animated gif showing approximately the same area on Mars as seen on 2012, 2021 (year of Perseverance landing) and 2024. A crater impact and ejecta appears on a megaripple field, with apparent degradation on the last frame. Superimposed credit line: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona/@sharponlooker
August 18, 2025 at 10:04 PM
sharponlooker.net
Concretions? Spherules? Why not both? 🙃

#PerseveranceRover Sol 1591

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mul...

mastodon.social/@sharponlook...
Edit of the linked SuperCam image. A small outcrop off the regolith "with a case of acne". What looks like concretions can in some places also be interpreted at embedded spherules.
August 13, 2025 at 3:39 PM
sharponlooker.net
Spherule-rich float rocks side-by-side comparison: St Paul's Bay vs "Gandalf's hat" (sic 🙃)

🧪🔭 #PlanetaryScience

Source images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Collage of both rocks. Striking similarities. They've been found scores of meters away but at a similar height on the rim.
August 5, 2025 at 10:21 PM
sharponlooker.net
If you liked the quoted cloudy panorama by @stim3on.bsky.social, there's a relevant current #Zooniverse project: www.zooniverse.org/projects/mat... with #MavenMission UV mosaics.

Not a simple task, but a good one to grasp how much activity there is in the Mars atmosphere.

#PlanetaryScience
Sample mosaic from the Zooniverse project, the Mars disk built of traverse slices with mapped UV colors. Multiple cloud formations are seen over the Tharsis region, with the dormant volcanoes showing as dark spots. This is subject https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/matteocrismani/cloudspotting-on-mars-shapes/talk/subjects/104285073
August 5, 2025 at 7:36 AM
sharponlooker.net
The #LucyMission posted yesterday the highest resolution photo they got of the whole #AsteroidDonaldjohanson (there are higher res partial closer photos)

science.nasa.gov/blogs/lucy/2...

They have some other goodies in their gallery
lucy.swri.edu/Donaldjohans...
NASA’s Lucy Mission Provides Full View of Asteroid Donaldjohanson - NASA Science
Scientists with NASA’s Lucy mission continue to analyze data collected during the spacecraft’s April 20 encounter with the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson.
science.nasa.gov
July 3, 2025 at 10:10 AM
sharponlooker.net
@PhilStooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy has bridged his account, so you can follow his Mastodon threads here too

🔭 #planetsci
philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Phil Stooke @philstooke.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · May 20
We saw this in the Mars Map sequence. It shows canals even though most maps of the time had dropped them. So here is my first set of missions which never happened. The oldest is von Braun's Mars Project in 1952/53. 10 spacecraft, 70 crew, the first crew land […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
A map of Mars in 2 hemispheres with a base made from a 1962 US Air Force map made for NASA. It still shows 'canals'. Added to it are several points suggested for early landings. The earliest is from von Braun's 1952 Mars Project. Later missions are from the 1960s.
May 20, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by V Martín
landru79.bsky.social
¿No me digas que he vuelto a poner la pieza mal orientada como las imágenes Watson del otro día? 😅

¿Me permite añadir mi versión a su hilo?

Asteroid #Donaldjohanson
Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager
NASA’s #Lucy

science.nasa.gov/image-articl...

NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/j. Roger
April 22, 2025 at 4:13 PM
sharponlooker.net
If you haven't yet: try the "bowling ball approaching the pin" point of view for #Donaldjohanson 😉

Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
April 22, 2025 at 5:40 AM
sharponlooker.net
Exquisite work! 👍 I took the liberty of rotating the 2nd one a bit, it gives a better sense of orientation. The detail and the lightning are great input for seeing how some of the small features that might look like the leopard spots from Cheyava, are probably impact spherules in this case.
April 7, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by V Martín
waynerb.bsky.social
North of Las Vegas NV...amazing geology, spectacular scenery, and petroglyphs.
January 19, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by V Martín
spacewhalerider.com
Now with a free-to-view link that I've finagled! All of you deserve to see Pluto and Charon's fun new originL rdcu.be/d5rp7
January 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by V Martín
bjornjonsson.bsky.social
An animation showing how Io's specular highlights change with changing viewing geometry. The illumination geometry is constant. The highlights are rendered using a preliminary illumination model - the specular reflections are based on the Phong specular reflection model.

vimeo.com/914591010
Io specular reflections
An animation showing how the specular highlights on Jupiter's satellite Io vary when the viewing geometry changes. The illumination geometry is constant. The…
vimeo.com
January 2, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by V Martín
sharponlooker.net
Martian rocks as Muppets (aka #muppetdolia), a thread

Perseverance sol 1268 (by Dox Castle) / Big Bird

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw...

1/n
Crop of the linked photo, a floating rock or outcrop with ventifacts resembling a bird's head Big Bird from The Muppets
December 28, 2024 at 2:54 PM