Day: April 20, 2021

Ingenuity: First Flight over Mars

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What’s the best way to explore Mars? Perhaps there is no single best way, but a newly demonstrated method shows tremendous promise: flight. Powered flight has the promise to search vast regions and scout out particularly interesting areas for more detailed investigation. Yesterday, for the first time, powered flight was demonstrated on Mars by a small helicopter named Ingenuity. In the featured video, Ingenuity is first imaged by the Perseverance rover sitting quietly on the Martian surface. After a few seconds, Ingenuity’s long rotors begin to spin, and a few seconds after that — history is made as Ingenuity actually takes off, hovers for a few seconds, and then lands safely. More tests of Ingenuity’s unprecedented ability are planned over the next few months. Flight may help humanity better explore not only Mars, but Saturn’s moon Titan over the next few decades. via NASA https://ift.tt/3tDOFIA

Wikipedia article of the day for April 20, 2021

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Wikipedia article of the day is Portraits of Odaenathus. Check it out: Article-Link Summary: Portraits of Odaenathus, the king of Palmyra from 260 to 267Β CE, include sculptures, seal impressions, and mosaic pieces. As a client king for Rome, Odaenathus came to dominate the Roman East after defeating ShapurΒ I of Persia in 260 and assuming the title King of Kings. Several limestone head portraits from Palmyra were identified by twentieth-century scholars as depicting Odaenathus, based on criteria such as the size and the presence of a wreath, but more recent research indicates that these pieces were probably funerary objects depicting private citizens. Two marble heads, both reflecting a high level of individuality, depicting Eastern royal attributes such as the tiara and diadem, are more likely to be portraits of the king. Also, two Palmyrene tesserae (example pictured) bear a probable depiction of the king, bearded and wearing a diadem and an earring. In addition, Odaenathus is likely the subject of two mosaic panels glorifying his victories.