Author | Lightnews

V Martín @sharponlooker.net · 10h

Pity I'll be there for the following home game vs Oviedo instead 🙁

V Martín @sharponlooker.net · 17d

Let me just pop in this convo to thank you for this great draft, really useful & referenced several times on fedi. I wasn't surprised by your other post mentioning it's been hectic for you since 3I 😉

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · 26d

My Saturday run is saved 😉 Cheers!

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · 27d

@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

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Reposted by V Martín

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · Sep 23

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

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · 29d

Wonderful work! I hope it's alright sharing it on other social networks 😉
mastodon.social/@sharponlook...

V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 22

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...

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Reposted by V Martín

Mike Tice @ticeonmars.bsky.social · Sep 16

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

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 16

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.

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 14

Thx a lot for the great coverage!

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 12

I've had that one in my reading tabs for quite a while now 😉 It mentions a companion paper but that one isn't out yet right? Thx

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 11

@timdemko.xyz I remember reading weeks ago a convincing refutal about the actual age

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 10

if it's like in Sweden, it's by law that you have to stop, it's not just for being nice😉

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 10

thanks for sharing, ok to share this link on mastodon? It's got some good comment beyond what was in the conference teaser papers 😉

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Reposted by V Martín

Tim Demko @timdemko.xyz · Sep 9

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)

$Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. The basalt exhibits intense fracturing, with light colored fracture fills. the contact is very sharp. There is an archaeologist (Madi Whalen) for scale.$ $Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. The basalt exhibits intense fracturing, with light colored fracture fills. There is an archaeologist (Madi Whalen) for scale.$ $Outcrop photo of Miocene eolian dune deposits overlain by vesicular basalt. The dune deposits are light orange-brown and characterized by wind ripple/translatent (pin-stripe) laminations, and the basalt is very dark reddish brown. The basalt exhibits intense fracturing, especially at the contact with the underlying sandstone, with light colored fracture fills. The units and the contact are offset by a small vertical fault.$

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Reposted by V Martín

astrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social · Sep 9

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.

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 8

Looks like EPSCDPS2025 is the preferred one. The joy of agreeing on a conference hashtag 😉

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Sep 1

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.

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 19

I forgot that animated gifs have to be movies in bluesky 🤦‍♂️, here's the full file for the first post (it's nice with an edit function on the fedi mastodon.social/@sharponlook...)

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 18

This corresponds to CBMD-a in these preliminary results to be presented at #EPSC2025:

Sokolowska, @mapperwocky.bsky.social et al: "Solving the puzzle of too many craters from hardware impacts of Mars 2020"
doi.org/10.5194/epsc...

🧵 2/2

Low-res capture of fig. 1, showing the projected landing ellipses for the 2 cruise ballast mass devices (CBMD) and the 5 fresh craters identified superimposed on a (assumed) CTX mosaic.

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 18

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

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 13

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.

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 6

bsky.app/profile/shar...

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 6

I don't think so, but I'm not a geologist 😉 The Perseverance team blogs lean towards impact melt from meteorites, or less likely from eruptions. Similar process but different results. Here's a reference to a possible Earth analogue, spherules from the Chicxulub impact
mastodon.social/@sharponlook...

V Martín (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image More convincing hypothesis of the #JezeroRimSpherules as impact spherules by MarsGuy (youtube link) https://youtu.be/5-PzwfOXUm8 Here's a preprint of the mentioned paper, Bermúdez ...

mastodon.social

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V Martín @sharponlooker.net · Aug 5

Witch Hazel's hat that flew away? 😀😉

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