Almost one hundred people came to Ingram Planetarium on August 6 to learn about Mars. This special program celebrated the Mars landing of Curiosity, the $2.5 billion NASA rover that recently landed on Mars. Jerry Jackson, Chief Meteorologist for WWAY-TV3, was on hand to talk about the atmosphere and weather on Mars and their effects on the planet’s surface. Planetarium Director Mark Jankowski discussed the basic features of Mars’ geological time periods and their effects on the Martian landscape.
The Planetarium’s state-of-the-art SciDome Sky Theater displayed stunning visual images of six different land formations on Mars. The presentation finished with a discussion of why NASA selected Gale crater as Curiosity’s landing site. In the Paul Dennis Science Hall, the Planetarium’s View Space screen ran a live TV feed from NASA.