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Comet Hale-Bopp
Top Ten Stories of '96
Life on Mars?

Update -- July 15 1:45pm EDT (1745 UT): At a JPL press conference today, mission computer engineers said they believe the problem with the computer resets that have plagued Pathfinder in recent days is caused by overloading the computer by trying to have it do too much work at once. They are looking into ways to prevent the problem and to avoid causing resets should overloading occur in the future.
     Preliminary analysis of the rock Yogi shows that it is similar, but not identical to, Barnacle Bill. Notably, Yogi seems to be more like a basalt whereas Barnacle Bill was more like an andesite. Both rocks are considerably different than the soil samples, which are all very similar to each other and to Viking samples. Scientists also released images of Mars taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and by Mars Global Surveyor (the first images returned by that spacecraft!) which show the dust storm to the south of the Pathfinder site was still going July 2 but had abated by July 9. Weather conditions at the landing site have also shown a few small changes.
     The next science briefing is not scheduled until early next week.

Update -- July 14 2:20pm EDT (1820 UT): The Pathfinder computer suffered another reset late Sunday night as it was transmitting back data from a full-color panoramic view of the landing site. Mission controllers don't think the problem, which has now occured three times since landing, is serious, and plan to finish downloading the image and other data later Monday.

Update -- July 14 6:00am EDT (1000 UT): Pathfinder has returned part of a wide panoramic shot of the Martian landscape which, unlike previous versions, will include more of the Martian landscape all the way to the horizon. Pathfinder engineers are also working on debugging a computer problem which has been causing communications problems between Earth and the lander.

Last Update: 1997 July 15
Questions/Comments: jeff@astron.mit.edu

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