The Mars Global Dust Storm of 2018: how dusty was it really?

This past year we've been treated to a once-in-five-years event, a Global Dust Storm on Mars. Curiosity has had a front row seat and PVL PDF Christina has been right there, through it all: designing observations, acquiring images and analyzing them to see just how dusty everything gets in Gale. The TLDR? very very very dusty.

by Dr. Christina L. Smith

Some of the members of the Planetary Volatiles Laboratory are also members of the Science Operations Team via Prof. Moores’ Participating Scientist proposal (thanks NASA and the Canadian Space Agency!). As part of that we get to participate in operations roles (aka be part of the team that plans what the rover does on any given day – which is super cool in case you were wondering :) ). But also we get to use the data that comes back and, if the science case warrants it, propose new observations.

For me, that means monitoring the dust using images that we take using two different cameras. One is Curiosity’s Navigation Cameras (we call it “Navcam”) - not technically one of the science instruments as they are primarily for navigational and engineering uses. But, luckily for us, these cameras are also scientifically calibrated so we can happily use them for science! The other camera I use data from is Curiosity’s Mast Camera (we call it “Mastcam” - sense a theme here?) and that one is a colour imager so we get more information about the colour than with Navcam’s images as Navcam’s images are taken only in the reddish region of visible light. But Navcam is more sensitive than Mastcam, so they complement each other really nicely.

Is Pluto in Danger?

Spring is in the air. Aside from cherry blossoms, new leaves on the trees and rising temperatures (perhaps in some places, but apparently not Toronto), that means that we have new students in the lab. One of those new students is Ariella Sapers and she is starting off her work with us by diving right in with this article on Pluto. As you'll see from her article, it's definitely not springtime for Pluto. The image she has chosen, shown above (Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)) the artist gives a a distinctively cold cast to their view of this dwarf planet and it's large moon Charon from the surface of one of the outer-lying moons.

By Ariella Sapers

I’m one of the many people that strongly believe Pluto needs to become a planet again. Even though the three characteristics that define a planet  (is in orbit around the Sun, has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape), and has cleared its orbital pathway) make logical sense, there is no real logic needed for the Pluto lovers out there who are mad with this decision. Ever since Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, it has been a beloved member of our Solar System. That is until 2006 when Pluto officially was demoted to a “Dwarf Planet,” due to the fact that it does not clear its orbital pathway. With that being said, there are mysteries and wonders about Pluto that are still being discovered to this day.

As we know, New Horizons flew by Pluto July 14th 2015 making it the first spacecraft ever to explore Pluto. I couldn’t have been the only one who woke up extra early to watch this flyby happen and I couldn’t have been the only one amazed by the images that we received on Earth. These images were breathtaking: being able to see an object 4.67 billion miles away from Earth in detail was quite an accomplishment for the New Horizons team. It was a huge leap for science as we would now be able to understand and learn more about Pluto’s atmosphere.