Sunday, 23 August 2026

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4982–4987: Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4982–4987: Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

A black-and-white close-up from the Curiosity rover showing a jagged, deeply eroded rock ledge casting a dark shadow, with thinly layered, flat sedimentary rocks visible in the upper left corner.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, of thin, ledge-like layers at target “Los Toldos,” using its Right Mast Camera (Mastcam). Curiosity captured the image on Aug. 12, 2026 — Sol 4982, or Martian day 4,982 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 01:05:04 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

By Allison Dries-Padilla, Missions Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

This week of Curiosity Mars rover operations takes us back to our “regularly scheduled programming.” After taking a slight detour to investigate the “erosional surface” we are back on course to ascend Mount Sharp. As we transition into fall in Gale Crater, temperatures and the likelihood of dust storms begins to drop, but Curiosity is still on the lookout for the last gasp of late-season local and regional dust storms.

Monday’s plan for Sols 4982 to 4985 began with Curiosity standing face to face with a unique geologic feature just above the erosional supersurface contact. As you might have read in the previous blog, the team was fortunate enough to spend two planning cycles at this amazing location. MAHLI used this opportunity to reacquire selected images for the mosaic of target “Tres Morros.” This will allow the science team to have a detailed and focused view of the underside of this feature. APXS took measurements of the bedrock target “El Motacusal” after it had been brushed with the DRT. APXS took a second measurement on the “as is” bedrock target “Alto de Carmen.” Both of these APXS targets were documented with high-resolution images taken by MAHLI. ChemCam activities include LIBS spectroscopy on bedrock targets “Lagunas Bravas” and “Parququcha” and ChemCam Remote Micro-Imaging on Mishe Mokwa. I had the pleasure to be on the Mastcam uplink shift for this plan. Mastcam took a near-field mosaic of the erosional ridge, dubbed “Los Toldos,” as well as a mosaic on further away bedrock exposure above the erosional surface, named “Los Ladrillos.” In addition to these mosaics, Mastcam also provided color documentation of the previous plan’s ChemCam Remote Micro-Imaging on Cordillera and the ChemCam LIBS activities taken in this plan.

Curiosity then drove 100 feet (30 meters) to take us to our location for Friday’s plan for Sols 4985 to 4987. Although we had plenty of flat and tasty bedrock in this new location, we could not place the robotic arm in a safe position to DRT the bedrock. The left-front wheel was perched on a small rock, and we had to account for a risk the rover could slip off this rock as we move the arm around. MAHLI and APXS were still able to safely perform contact science on two bedrock targets, “Mamorecillo” and “Aguas Claras.” MAHLI had an additional housekeeping activity to image the calibration target. ChemCam plans to use its laser spectrometer to gather geochemistry on three targets in this vicinity, followed by Mastcam documentation. Today’s ChemCam LIBS targets include a dark-toned resistant layer in the bedrock “Yura Kasa.” Mastcam is planning a series of mosaics to continue imaging the stratigraphy in the unit above the erosional contact.

Today’s plan was packed with environmental monitoring activities to monitor for dust storms. Mastcam took a flurry of dust-imaging observations to measure optical depth, or “tau,” of the atmosphere. A higher tau value is associated with an increased amount of dust in the atmosphere. APXS joined in on the action by planning an overnight atmospheric measurement. Navcam took on most of the heavy lifting to monitor for dust storms. These activities include multiple large dust-devil surveys, zenith observation, in-crater line-of-sight observations, and suprahorizon cloud movies.

Curiosity will then continue to climb Mount Sharp; the planned drive distance of 150 feet (47 meters) will take the rover southwest of our current location. We will return Monday to start a new week full of contact science, remote sensing, and driving on Mars.

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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Aug 23, 2026

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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4975-4981: Happy 14th Landing Anniversary



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Saturday, 22 August 2026

APOD: 2026 August 22 – Mostly Perseids

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

An allsky camera view of the Perseid meteor shower.

Mostly Perseids

Explanation: Recorded the night of August 12-13, images from four dedicated meteor-monitoring cameras at an astronomical observatory in Czechia were aligned and combined to create this all-night, all-sky view. On that night, the total count came to 1,706 meteors. And since that coincided with the peak activity of the 2026 Perseid Meteor Shower, most are perseids. Their overwhelming numbers make them easy to spot. Quite convincingly, perseid trails all trace back to a single radiant on the sky at the upper right, a region in the annual shower’s eponymous constellation Perseus. But meteors belonging to other much less active showers can be revealed by finding their radiants too. For example, seen crossing the perseid trails are meteors from a shower whose radiant lies in Cygnus, known as Kappa Cygnids. The antihelion complex, a general region near Aquarius and opposite the Sun in the sky, is also identifiable as a weak source for meteors.

Tomorrow’s picture: interplanetary road trip

Date August 22, 2026
Credit & Copyright: Jakub Koukal (Valašské Meziříčí Observatory)
Authors & editors: Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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NASA Shares Views of August Solar Eclipse from Ground, Air, Space

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NASA Shares Views of August Solar Eclipse from Ground, Air, Space

A sequence of images in a diagonal line from upper left to lower right shows the progression of a total solar eclipse, with an uneclipsed Sun in the upper left and other images showing the Sun becoming more and more eclipsed toward the lower right. A total eclipse, with the white corona around the dark disk of the Moon, appears in the line of eclipse images, near the center. Three more images to the lower right of the total eclipse show a crescent Sun becoming less eclipsed. The final image in the lower right shows the Sun starting to dip below the horizon, with its lower portions covered by the foreground.
This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse as the Sun sets over San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.
Credits:
NASA/Bill Ingalls

On Aug. 12, a total solar eclipse darkened skies over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain. As the Moon covered the Sun, it briefly revealed the Sun’s wispy outer atmosphere — the corona — to those in the path of totality who were lucky enough to have clear skies. NASA researchers and photographers were along the eclipse path to study the corona, capture the phenomenon, and observe how the eclipse affected our planet.

One NASA photographer in Spain captured the total solar eclipse as well as the partial phases before and after, until the Sun set below the horizon.

In a dusky sky above a field of sunflowers, a sequence of images shows the progression of a total solar eclipse, from an uneclipsed Sun in the upper left followed by a line of other images showing the Sun becoming more and more eclipsed toward the lower right. A total eclipse, with the white corona around the dark disk of the Moon, appears in the line of eclipse images, near the horizon. A couple more images show a red crescent Sun to the lower right of the total eclipse image.
This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over a field of sunflowers in San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, on Aug. 12, 2026. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
In this photograph of a total solar eclipse, the black disk of the Moon covers the face of the Sun, leaving a glowing, yellow, hazy ring of corona around the edges of the Moon, with large streamers extending toward the upper left, lower left, and lower right.
The solar corona appears in this photograph of a total solar eclipse captured from San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, on Aug. 12, 2026. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
In this photograph of a total solar eclipse, the black disk of the Moon covers the face of the Sun, leaving a glowing, yellow, hazy ring of corona around the edges of the Moon. On the left edge is a pink, mountain-shaped prominence rising off of the edge of the eclipsed Sun.
A solar prominence, a plume of electrically charged gas suspended above the Sun by strong magnetic forces, appears as a pink feature along the left edge of the eclipsed Sun in this photograph taken from San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, on Aug. 12, 2026. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
A sequence of images in a diagonal line from upper left to lower right shows the progression of a total solar eclipse, with an uneclipsed Sun in the upper left and other images showing the Sun becoming more and more eclipsed toward the lower right. A total eclipse, with the white corona around the dark disk of the Moon, appears in the line of eclipse images, near the center. Three more images to the lower right of the total eclipse show a crescent Sun becoming less eclipsed. The final image in the lower right shows the Sun starting to dip below the horizon, with its lower portions covered by the foreground.
This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse as the Sun sets in San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, on Aug. 12, 2026. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

In northern Maine, where only a partial eclipse was visible, another NASA photographer captured the International Space Station, with its crew of seven aboard, speeding past the partially eclipsed Sun.

A partially eclipsed Sun appears with the Moon blocking a small portion of the Sun at top. Clouds also appear in front of the Sun. To the left of center is the small silhouette of the International Space Station. A few sunspots appear on the Sun to the left of the space station.
In this image of a partial solar eclipse, which is veiled by clouds, the International Space Station, with a crew of seven aboard, appears in silhouette as it transits at roughly five miles per second on Aug. 12, 2026, as seen near Hodgdon, Maine. Aboard the station as part of Expedition 75 are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Anil Menon, and Jack Hathaway; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Andrey Fedyaev, and Anna Kikina. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
An animated GIF shows the partially eclipsed Sun, with the Moon covering the top part of the Sun and thin clouds in front of the Sun, appearing like smoke. During the animation, a silhouette of the International Space Station passes from right to left across the center of the Sun.
Twelve frames assembled in sequence show the International Space Station, with a crew of seven aboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second during a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026, as seen near Hodgdon, Maine. Clouds partially obscure the view of the Sun. Aboard the station as part of Expedition 75 are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Anil Menon, and Jack Hathaway; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Andrey Fedyaev, and Anna Kikina. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Meanwhile, from about 250 miles above the ground, a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped a few photos of the partial eclipse from their perspective as well.

A photo shows the partially eclipsed Sun as a white disk, set against a black sky, with a small
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir captured this photo of the partial solar eclipse from the International Space Station on Aug. 12, 2026, as the orbital outpost soared 262 miles above southern Quebec, Canada. From the station, the Moon covered about 18% of the Sun at the peak of the eclipse. Credit: NASA/Jessica Meir

Between the ground and the space station, NASA pilots flew NASA’s WB-57F research jet at an altitude of 50,000 feet, passing through the eclipse’s shadow to lengthen their time in the eclipse. The jet carried a suite of cameras that captured high-resolution images of the corona and prominences, plumes of electrically charged gas rising off the Sun, in several different wavelengths of light.

The total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026, was captured by a camera mounted inside the cockpit window of NASA’s WB-57F aircraft as it flew around 50,000 feet altitude off the coast of Iceland.
NASA
Four panels show the left edge of the eclipsed Sun in different wavelengths of light. In each image is a cloud of material, a prominence, rising off the left edge of the Sun. The prominence appears in different colors and resolutions in each image. The four images are labeled Visible, Near Infrared, Short-Wave Infrared, and Mid-Wave Infrared.
A suite of cameras installed on NASA’s WB-57F aircraft captured images of the solar corona and prominences in different wavelengths of visible and infrared light during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. A science team led by the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, will analyze the images to learn more about complex and dynamic features in the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Credit: NASA/SwRI/Will Ashfield

In both Iceland and Spain, teams of students participating in the NASA-funded Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project launched scientific balloons that carried instruments to capture images of the eclipse’s shadow and study the eclipse’s effects on our atmosphere. Even though clouds obscured the view of the eclipse from the ground in Iceland, the weather did not interfere with the balloon-borne instruments’ ability to gather information about how the brief loss of light and heat affected the lower atmosphere.

Four students in jackets hold a large white balloon in a grassy field under a gray, cloudy sky.
Students participating in the NASA-funded Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project prepare to launch a scientific balloon in Mosfellsbær, Iceland, during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. Credit: NASA/Abbey Interrante
The Moon’s shadow passes over the atmosphere during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. The video was taken by a camera carried by a scientific balloon launched from Spain by a student team from Montana State University participating in the NASA-funded Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. The video captures about six minutes of time but is sped up to play at four times real speed. Passing through the foreground are some other science instruments carried by the same balloon.
Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project/Montana State University

Before the eclipse, scientists at Predictive Science Inc., with support from NASA grants and supercomputers, used observations of the Sun from NASA spacecraft and ground-based telescopes to predict what the corona would look like during the eclipse. Below, their corona prediction is compared to a composite image of the corona, which combines multiple images captured by the NASA-supported DEB Initiative project during the total eclipse near León, Spain.

prediction
image

A simulated image of a total solar eclipse shows the Moon as a black disk at the center surrounded by white rays extending outward around the Moon, set against a black background. Some of the rays are longer or thicker than others.
This image shows a prediction from the morning of Aug. 12, 2026, of what the solar corona would look like to the human eye during the total solar eclipse that day.
Predictive Science Inc.

An image of a total solar eclipse shows the Moon as a black disk at the center surrounded by white rays extending outward around the Moon, set against a gray background. Some of the rays are longer or thicker than others.
This processed, composite image of the corona combines multiple images captured near León, Spain, during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026.
DEB Initiative Team/Zack Stockbridge

A simulated image of a total solar eclipse shows the Moon as a black disk at the center surrounded by white rays extending outward around the Moon, set against a black background. Some of the rays are longer or thicker than others.
This image shows a prediction from the morning of Aug. 12, 2026, of what the solar corona would look like to the human eye during the total solar eclipse that day.
Predictive Science Inc.
An image of a total solar eclipse shows the Moon as a black disk at the center surrounded by white rays extending outward around the Moon, set against a gray background. Some of the rays are longer or thicker than others.
This processed, composite image of the corona combines multiple images captured near León, Spain, during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026.
DEB Initiative Team/Zack Stockbridge

prediction

image


The left image shows a prediction from the morning of Aug. 12, 2026, of what the solar corona would look like to the human eye during the total solar eclipse that day. The right image is processed, composite image of the corona that combines multiple images captured near León, Spain, during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. Left image credit: Predictive Science Inc.; right image credit: DEB Initiative Team/Zack Stockbridge

Over the coming months, scientists will analyze the observations and images captured during the solar eclipse on Aug. 12 and present what they have learned about the Sun and its effects on our home planet. These observations will also help prepare science teams to investigate future solar eclipses, such as a much longer total solar eclipse that will be visible from southern Spain and northern Africa on Aug. 2, 2027.

Read more about NASA’s research during the eclipse and rewatch NASA’s eclipse broadcast to hear from some of the scientists and students who conducted the experiments.

About the Author

Vanessa Thomas

Vanessa Thomas

Vanessa Thomas is a science writer with the heliophysics communications team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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Aug 21, 2026

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Friday, 21 August 2026

NASA’s Artemis II Crew Set to Receive Congressional Space Medal of Honor

From left, Artemis II crew NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen are photographed on April 29, 2026, in the White House Oval Office with President Donald J. Trump.
Credit: White House

President Donald J. Trump will award each of NASA’s Artemis II crew members the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 28, during a ceremony at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, completed a 10-day mission around the Moon on April 10. During a historic test flight as the first astronauts to fly aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, these crew members were the first to travel beyond the Moon in more than 50 years and traveled farther in space than humans have ever before.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will join the President and astronauts in the awards ceremony.

The event will stream live on a variety of platforms. Learn how to watch online:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

In addition to pooled media, limited media credentialing is available for this event. To apply, please submit your request online by 5 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Aug. 25.   

Learn more about NASA’s Artemis program on the agency’s website.

-end-

Bethany Stevens / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov

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Aug 21, 2026

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Europe’s Scorching Summer

Output from NASA’s GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) global model shows daily maximum surface air temperature across Western Europe from May 1 to August 19, 2026. The darkest red areas indicate temperatures that met or exceeded 40°C (104°F).
NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin

Western Europe got its first hint of an unusual summer in May 2026, when a heat dome produced exceptional temperatures that shattered records in several countries. Remarkable as it was, that early heat wave turned out to be only the opening salvo.

By mid-August, Europeans were sweating through their fifth heat wave of the season, with the latest onslaught pushing temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across a broad area. During these bouts of extreme weather, high temperatures were often unrelenting, persisting for several days and sometimes weeks on end, and remaining overnight.

For a region accustomed to relatively mild summers, the heat upended everyday life. Hospitalizations and heat-related deaths spiked. Highways and train tracks buckled, forcing road closures and service disruptions. Large and destructive wildfires raged in areas where they were once rarely seen. The heat also worsened the severe drought that has gripped the region for months, contributing to record-low river water levels and disrupting water and power supplies, transportation routes, and agriculture.

The animation above shows the daily maximum surface air temperature across Western Europe from May 1 to August 19, 2026. It was produced by combining satellite observations with temperatures predicted by a version of NASA’s GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) global model, which uses mathematical equations to represent physical processes in the atmosphere. The darkest red areas indicate where temperatures met or exceeded 40°C.

The heat broke records at a furious pace, often by wide margins. According to the UK Met Office, temperatures soared as high as 35.1°C (95.2°F) in London on May 26, smashing the previous May record by 2.3°C (4.1°F). In June, Bordeaux, France, broke its maximum-temperature record on three consecutive days, hitting 42.5°C on June 24, Météo-France reported. Slovakia, meanwhile, set new national records for both daytime and nighttime highs in August. Combined June and July temperatures in Western Europe were the highest on record, according to Europe’s Copernicus climate monitoring service.

In Europe, extreme temperatures collided with several vulnerabilities, including limited access to air conditioning, high nighttime temperatures, and a lack of green space in some cities. The circumstances triggered not just discomfort but heat exhaustion and heatstroke in some cases. Preliminary reports suggest that heat may have been associated with 10,000 excess deaths, including thousands of people in the UK, France, Germany, and Belgium.

“Air conditioning is an especially critical issue in Europe in the short term,” said Anamika Shreevastava, a researcher at New York University who studied urban heat islands as a postdoc at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. One of her goals was to produce thermal maps based on NASA data from missions like ECOSTRESS that city planners could use to make cities more resilient to heat waves.

International Energy Agency data show that 23 percent of homes in Europe have air conditioning, compared to 90 percent of homes in the United States. That difference contributes to the much higher death rates that researchers have documented in European cities during heat waves than in comparable American cities. “Longer term, cities can also plant trees, expand parks, use reflective roof paint, and transition to building materials less likely to retain heat,” Shreevastava said.

An analysis from the World Health Organization indicates that heat stress is the world’s leading cause of weather-related deaths, noting it exacerbates underlying illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health conditions, and asthma. Researchers have calculated that roughly 489,000 heat-related deaths occur each year, with 45 percent of the deaths in Asia and 36 percent in Europe.

“For older adults with physical health problems, temperatures as low as 26.7°C (80°F) can pose significant danger,” said Deborah Carr, a Boston University sociologist who specializes in the study of aging. “Nighttime heat is especially harmful for older adults whose homes lack air conditioning.”

Carr is part of a research team that used demographic data, along with temperature and climate data archived by NASA, to identify which parts of the world are at the greatest risk of current and future heat exposure. Southern Europe was among the areas facing growing heat exposure and an aging population, the researchers found.

Other research, published in Lancet Planetary Health in August 2026, underscores the importance of demographics in assessing the risks posed by heat. This study, led by Stanford researcher Qinqin Kong, mapped where increasing heat is likely to lead to intolerable conditions in the coming decades for young, middle-aged, and older adults, concluding that safe thresholds will be breached often and widely, with risks falling disproportionately on older people.

“The human body can tolerate only a limited range of ambient heat,” said Kong, a recipient of a NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology award. “Understanding where, when, and to what extent these limits are exceeded is critical.”

With intolerable levels of heat expected to affect more people across larger regions and for longer periods than previously thought, Kong and his colleagues hope that their findings will inform targeted heat action plans, emergency preparedness, and health system planning.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using GEOS-FP data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Adam Voiland.

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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4982–4987: Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

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