Wednesday, 4 March 2026

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4818-4824: Thinking Out of the Boxwork

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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4818-4824: Thinking Out of the Boxwork

A wide-angle, grayscale photo from the Mars surface shows mostly flat, medium gray, slightly rough terrain ahead of the rover, leading to an outcrop rising in the upper right of the frame, composed of layered rocks. The rover’s robotic arm and turret on the end of it dominate the frame, taking up most of the center of the image. They’re pointing down, reaching for a patch of jagged rocks on the ground in front of the rover. Other parts of the rover are also visible in the frame, including a wheel in the bottom left and right corners, and another section covering the upper left corner of the image; all are dark and shadowed.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam), showing the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument investigating a target. APXS is a spectrometer that measures the abundance of chemical elements in rocks and soils, is about the size of a cupcake, and is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. Curiosity captured this image on Feb. 26, 2026 — Sol 4820, or Martian day 4,820 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 13:03:08 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Ashley Stroupe, Operations Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 27, 2026

This week we had three planning sessions, exploring the eastern side of the boxwork unit. As a Rover Planner on Monday, I worked on the arm and drive activities, while on Friday I served as the Engineering Uplink Lead (planning all of our engineering activities like heating and managing our onboard data). We had two small drives this week to put different targets into our workspace for each plan. The months-long careful and systematic investigation of the boxwork unit will hopefully provide the science team insights on what was going on in this area of Mars that resulted in this interesting and unique terrain. As we wrap it up, we are already thinking ahead to our future investigations of the sulfate unit, where we will be heading after finishing here and continuing our climb up Mount Sharp. 

With three plans and short drives, we were able to do a total of 19 Mastcam stereo mosaics, getting a full 360-degree panorama as well as additional documentation of the nearby ridges/hollows and the nearby sulfate unit. Some of the rocks in the hollows show a return of the polygonal structures that we saw in abundance prior to entering the boxwork unit, but have only seen sparsely in other hollows. As we are entering deeper into the warmer months, the start of dust-storm season, we have also been doing a lot of atmospheric measurements. We did multiple observations of the crater rim (to watch it fading into the haze), Mastcam solar Tau measurements (looking at the Sun to measure dust in the atmosphere), dust-devil movies, and other sky observations. 

We investigated a total of four targets with MAHLI and APXS, two of which we were able to brush. The accompanying image shows the APXS down on one of the targets near the contact. Most of the targets were not very complicated for the Rover Planners because the rocks have been mostly smooth and flat. But our Wednesday target, “Los Monos,” was slightly under the front of the rover, and we had to do some additional intermediate arm motions to reach underneath safely. We won’t actually know if today’s targets are on the other side of the contact (in the sulfate unit) or not until we can study the data. 

Planning the short drives has been interesting, as with most of the boxwork unit drives, because we must navigate around the sand and steeper slopes in hopes of minimizing slip. In this weekend’s plan our drive will head south towards the southern end of the boxwork unit, where the terrain smooths out a bit and driving should be easier.

A rover sits on the hilly, orange Martian surface beneath a flat grey sky, surrounded by chunks of rock.
NASA’s Curiosity rover at the base of Mount Sharp
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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Mar 03, 2026

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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4812-4817: Back Into the Hollows



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NASA Invites Proposals to Lease Land Parcels at Sandusky Facility

Green and gold farmland is separated by roads and tree lines. A white building with a dome flanked by two rectangular sections sits at the bottom left of the photo. It has a NASA logo on the front of it.
The Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, shown here in September 2024. Armstrong Test Facility sits on 6,400 acres of land.
Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin

NASA’s Glenn Research Center is seeking proposals to lease select land parcels at its Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. EST on July 2, 2026.

The parcels are part of an area of land that currently serves as a buffer for ongoing NASA operations. The solicitation includes the land parcels, any existing facilities on the property, and access to supporting infrastructure needed for a tenant to operate onsite.

The available land includes five parcels ranging in size from approximately 184 to 516 acres, for a total of about 1,736 acres. Two of the parcels currently sit within Armstrong Test Facility’s controlled-access area. Proposers may submit proposals for individual parcels, portions of parcels, or combinations of parcels and acreage.

If selected, the proposer(s) would enter a lease with NASA using a Model Enhanced Use Lease Agreement, which provides the rights needed to occupy, operate, modify, and maintain the land for one 20-year base period and two consecutive 10-year option periods. Proposals may identify other term options, which will be evaluated and considered by NASA.   

During the proposal and review period, NASA plans to request feedback from the community on factors most important to them for NASA to consider when evaluating proposals.

NASA Glenn first announced plans to lease property and facilities in May 2024 under the government’s Enhanced Use Lease authority. These lease agreements allow space, aeronautics, and other related industries to use agency land and facilities, reducing NASA’s maintenance costs while fostering strategic partnerships that spur innovation.

“As we modernize our Cleveland and Sandusky campuses to support NASA’s future missions, Enhanced Use Leases help ensure full use of government land and facilities while creating regional economic opportunities,” said Dr. Jimmy Kenyon, Glenn’s center director.

Armstrong Test Facility, formerly known as Plum Brook Station, spans more than 6,400 acres of controlled land. Located near Lake Erie and several popular tourist destinations, it is home to unique, world-class test facilities that support complex ground testing for the international aerospace community.

Interested parties should contact NASA HQ Real Estate at hq-realestate@mail.nasa.gov to submit a request to view the property.

For more information about Armstrong Test Facility, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/neil-armstrong-test-facility

-end-

Jan Wittry
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland 
216-433-5466
jan.m.wittry-1@nasa.gov



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Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Two Observatories, One Cosmic Eye: Hubble and Euclid View Cat’s Eye Nebula

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Two Observatories, One Cosmic Eye: Hubble and Euclid View Cat’s Eye Nebula

A planetary nebula in space. The star in the very center is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. A multitude of golden and white stars, wisps of gas and distant galaxies of various sizes surround the nebula on the black background.
Hubble and Euclid teamed up in this image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, NGC 6543.
Credits:
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov
Two images of a planetary nebula (the Cat's Eye Nebula) in space. The image to the left, labeled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very center is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indicates the center of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, pointed jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at 4,400 light-years away.

Planetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape, which made them appear to look like planets when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 — examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules that’s characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies. 

Hubble also revolutionized our understanding of planetary nebulae; its detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground belies a very complex morphology. This was particularly true of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble images in 1995 revealed never-before-seen structures that broadened our understanding of how planetary nebulae come to be.

An image of the center of a planetary nebula (the Cat's Eye Nebula). A blue star sits at the center within a series of overlapping, translucent bubbles of gas. The bubbles have a complex, filamentary structure. The two largest bubbles overlap halfway, creating an eye-like shape with the star at the center. Jets of high-speed gas point out of the top and bottom of the nebula. Faint, concentric circles of gas also surround the star, out beyond the bubbles.
In this new image, Hubble captures the very core of billowing gas with the High Resolution Channel sub-instrument on its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). This instrument is optimized for taking very sharp images of fine details in a small area, such as the complex features at the heart of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s center, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages. Part of these data were also used in a previous image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, released in 2004. Previously unused data from ACS is combined with state-of-the-art image processing to create this new image, the sharpest yet taken of this nebula.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Tsvetanov

This time, Hubble is joined by ESA’s Euclid space telescope to create a new image of NGC 6543. The combined eyes of Hubble and Euclid reveal the remarkable complexity of stellar death in this object. Though primarily designed to map the distant universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared, and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colorful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the center formed. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together with Euclid.

A planetary nebula in space. The star in the very center is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. A multitude of golden and white stars, wisps of gas and distant galaxies of various sizes surround the nebula on the black background.
In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared, and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colorful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the center formed. Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the center of this image. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together in modern astronomical surveys. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov

Within this broad view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with a new high-resolution visible-light image, adding extra detail in the center of this image. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s center, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages.

Combining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure but also places it within the broader context of the universe that both space telescopes explore. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Related Images & Links

Two images of a planetary nebula in space. The image to the left, labeled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very center is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indicates the center of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, pointed jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail.

Hubble and Euclid Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula

Download a 12.1 MB Tiff (4000 X 1667) of the Euclid and Hubble image (left) and the Hubble image (right) of the Cat’s Eye Nebula.

An image of the center of a planetary nebula. A blue star sits at the center within a series of overlapping, translucent bubbles of gas. The bubbles have a complex, filamentary structure. The two largest bubbles overlap halfway, creating an eye-like shape with the star at the center. Jets of high-speed gas point out of the top and bottom of the nebula. Faint, concentric circles of gas also surround the star, out beyond the bubbles.

Hubble Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula 2026

Download a 14.3 MB Tiff (1546 X 1608) of Hubble’s latest image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula.

A planetary nebula in space. The star in the very center is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. A multitude of golden and white stars, wisps of gas and distant galaxies of various sizes surround the nebula on the black background.

Euclid and Hubble’s Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula

Download a 18.9 MB Tiff (4000 X 2195) of the combined Euclid and Hubble view of the Cat’s Eye Nebula.

The Cat's Eye Nebula: Dying Star Creates Fantasy-like Sculpture of Gas and Dust

Hubble Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula 2004

This detailed Hubble image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings.”

The Cat's Eye Nebula

Hubble Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula 1995

This Hubble image shows one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen, NGC 6543, nicknamed the “Cat’s Eye Nebula.”

collage of Hubble views of planetary nebulas

Hubble Science: The Death Throes of Stars

When stars die, they throw off their outer layers, creating the clouds that birth new stars.

Faint, wispy clouds glow from the light of a central, pale star. A hole in the clouds, roughly in the shape of a keyhole, shows black space.

Universe Uncovered: Hubble’s Nebulae

These ethereal veils of gas and dust tell the story of star birth and death.

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Last Updated
Mar 03, 2026
Editor
Andrea Gianopoulos


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Smoke Rises Over Big Cypress National Preserve

A satellite image of southern Florida shows white-gray smoke east of the coastal city of Naples. Winds carry the plume northward toward Lake Okeechobee.
February 25, 2026

On February 22, 2026, a wildland fire was discovered in Big Cypress National Preserve, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Naples, Florida. The blaze, dubbed the National fire, moved through dry vegetation and sent a plume of smoke billowing over parts of the preserve and nearby communities. 

The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on the afternoon of February 25. By then, the fire had burned around 24,000 acres (9,700 hectares), according to the National Park Service.

After carrying smoke southward in previous days, winds shifted to start pushing it north by the time Aqua captured this image. According to news reports, the smoke reduced visibility and led to the brief closure of I-75—the interstate nicknamed “Alligator Alley” that runs east-west through the northern part of the preserve. It also contributed to smog over Lake Okeechobee. 

The fire continued to spread over the next several days, reaching just over 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares) by February 28, according to InciWeb. As of March 2, it remained roughly the same size and was 38 percent contained. 

The fire’s cause remains under investigation. Officials noted, however, that its spread was driven by ample fuel, including vegetation that was dry from persistent, extreme drought and damaged by recent frost. The National Interagency Fire Center’s wildland fire outlook calls for above-normal fire potential across Florida through May.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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A satellite image of southern Florida shows white-gray smoke east of the coastal city of Naples. Winds carry the plume northward toward Lake Okeechobee.

February 25, 2026

JPEG (1.81 MB)

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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4818-4824: Thinking Out of the Boxwork

Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Featur...