@PCharon2000

Graduate student at Purdue EAPS, studying ancient Mars with orbiters and rovers! Opinions are my own. He/him 🏳️‍🌈🇬🇧🇬🇷

 London, UK
Joined December 2018
  • Tweets246
  • Following1.3K
  • Followers213
39Media
Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
NASA Mars
@NASAMarsOct 8
A journey to the depths of ancient Mars? Perseverance is exploring a field of light-toned rocks, which are an unusual sight on Mars, a planet dominated by dark-colored basaltic stones. This piqued the team’s interest. What are they? How did they get here?  ½
A desert landscape on Mars, seen from beneath the rover, with its robotic "hand" visible along with and a wheel with tracks in the dirt.

ALT A desert landscape on Mars, seen from beneath the rover, with its robotic "hand" visible along with and a wheel with tracks in the dirt.

A field of light-toned rocks in reddish soil.

ALT A field of light-toned rocks in reddish soil.

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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Abigail Fraeman@abbyfraeOct 1
We found some pretty awesome looking rocks with Curiosity last week. More here: science.nasa.gov/blog/curios…
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After a hiatus, the Perseverance rover blog is back! Regular updates will now be resuming. My post this week covers Perseverance’s exploration of "Lac de Charmes" where the rover is investigating some truly ancient martian terrain. science.nasa.gov/blog/mars-h…

Mars Has Its Charmes - NASA Science

Written by Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras, Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University 

science.nasa.gov
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Isar Aerospace
@isaraerospaceSep 5
We’re in orbit! And just made European history: This is the first time a privately developed rocket reached orbit from continental Europe; and a testament to the dedication, expertise, and teamwork of everyone involved.
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
LandSpace@LandSpace_TechAug 19
MISSION SUCCESS | ZhuQue-3 Y2 Reusable Launch Vehicle Achieved Full Success in Orbital Insertion and First-Stage Recovery On August 19, 2026, at 07:35 (UTC+8), the ZhuQue-3 (ZQ-3) Y2 reusable launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone. Approximately 137 seconds after lift-off, the first and second stages separated. The second stage continued its flight and successfully delivered the Honghu 03 satellite, independently developed by Hongqing Technology, into its designated orbit. At approximately 07:41, the first stage performed a successful soft touchdown at the LandSpace Landing Site#1 in Minqin County, Gansu Province, following the planned trajectory — marking the full success of the flight test mission.
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Henry Manelski@HenryManelskiJul 23
Excited to have our latest article highlighted by @jgrplanets in this post! LIBS can create sub-mm elemental maps in a vacuum and we tested it on a lunar meteorite! This rapid, quantitative data could be a game-changer for lunar landers/rovers. Check out our paper to see why!
JGR-Planets@jgrplanetsJul 22
In a new study, scientists develop a detailed calibration that allows Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements to be used to quantify the composition of lunar materials. 🔗Check it out: doi.org/10.1029/2026JE009769 #AGUPubs #Meteorite #PlanetaryScience #Moon
New in JGR Planets LIBS Elemental Mapping of a Feldspathic Lunar Meteorite: Insights for In Situ Exploration Manelski et al 2026

ALT New in JGR Planets LIBS Elemental Mapping of a Feldspathic Lunar Meteorite: Insights for In Situ Exploration Manelski et al 2026

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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Reid Wiseman@astro_reidApr 19
Only one chance in this lifetime… Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @Astro_Christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens. @AstroVicGlover was in window 3 watching with @Astro_Jeremy next to him. I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view…this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
European Space Agency
@esa7 Oct 2025
☄️ #3I/ATLAS comet update! On 3 October, our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) turned its eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed close to Mars. Together with Mars Express, ExoMars TGO had the closest view of the comet of all of our spacecraft. It looked towards the interstellar interloper from just 30 million km away during its closest approach to the Red Planet. Read more: esa.int/Science_Exploration/…
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
NASA Mars
@NASAMars10 Sep 2025
After a year of scientific scrutiny, a rock sample collected by the Perseverance rover has been confirmed to contain a potential biosignature. The sample is the best candidate so far to provide evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars. go.nasa.gov/4n35lVM
A self-portrait photo of the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars, taken with a camera on its robotic arm. The six-wheel rover sits in a rocky desert landscape. Its robotic "head" is pointed down to one rock where there is a small hole drilled, along with a small pile of light-colored tailings from the drill.

ALT A self-portrait photo of the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars, taken with a camera on its robotic arm. The six-wheel rover sits in a rocky desert landscape. Its robotic "head" is pointed down to one rock where there is a small hole drilled, along with a small pile of light-colored tailings from the drill.

A close-up photo of layered rocks. Between two layers, in reddish mudstone, are small, dark spots, slightly lighter at the middle of each spot.

ALT A close-up photo of layered rocks. Between two layers, in reddish mudstone, are small, dark spots, slightly lighter at the middle of each spot.

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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
NASA JPL
@NASAJPL10 Sep 2025
Remember the “leopard spots” rock Perseverance sampled last year? After a year of scientific scrutiny, the rock remains the mission's best candidate for containing signs of ancient microbial life processes. More on this peer-reviewed finding: go.nasa.gov/4nmZuKm
Close-up image of a rock surface on Mars captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The rock shows a mix of reddish-brown terrain and lighter-toned material running diagonally through the frame. Numerous small, rounded mineral grains are embedded in the surface. Two features are labeled in red: “Olivine,” pointing to a greenish, oval-shaped crystal on the right side, and “Leopard Spot,” pointing to a darker, circular patch within the flat, dusty rock. The textures highlight the mineral diversity present in the sampled area.

ALT Close-up image of a rock surface on Mars captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The rock shows a mix of reddish-brown terrain and lighter-toned material running diagonally through the frame. Numerous small, rounded mineral grains are embedded in the surface. Two features are labeled in red: “Olivine,” pointing to a greenish, oval-shaped crystal on the right side, and “Leopard Spot,” pointing to a darker, circular patch within the flat, dusty rock. The textures highlight the mineral diversity present in the sampled area.

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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Eric Berger
@SciGuySpace18 Aug 2025
I went there. Because at this point, it's difficult to come to any other conclusion. arstechnica.com/space/2025/0…

After recent tests, China appears likely to beat the United States back to the Moon

An expert explains why this will be enormously bad for the United States.

arstechnica.com
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Tod R. Lauer@TodLauer30 Jun 2025
New Horizons is so far away that the nearest stars have shifted markedly from where we see them on Earth. With NH-based positions for two stars alone we can figure out where the spacecraft is. This technique would be used on interstellar voyages. arxiv.org/abs/2506.21666

A Demonstration of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft exits the Solar System bound for interstellar space, it has traveled so far that the nearest stars have shifted markedly from their positions seen from Earth. We...

arxiv.org
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Wishing upon a... moon? That bright "star" is actually Mars' moon Deimos. In the hours before dawn, I snapped this long-exposure image with my left Navcam and caught Deimos as well as two stars from the constellation Leo in the sky. It's definitely a mood, as they say.
A hazy night sky image shows the Martian surface with hills off in the distance. Up in the sky is a bright white orb with two much smaller ones to the left of it. The orb is a hazy blue color and is the Martian moon Deimos. The two orbs next to Deimos are Algieba and Regulus, two stars that are part of the constellation Leo.

ALT A hazy night sky image shows the Martian surface with hills off in the distance. Up in the sky is a bright white orb with two much smaller ones to the left of it. The orb is a hazy blue color and is the Martian moon Deimos. The two orbs next to Deimos are Algieba and Regulus, two stars that are part of the constellation Leo.

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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
Volcaholic 🌋
@volcaholic111 May 2025
Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this 😱 This CCTV footage captures the powerful M7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar in March. You can clearly see the dramatic shift in the ground. Absolutely surreal.
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
NASA Solar System
@NASASolarSystem24 Apr 2025
NASA’s #DragonflyMission, which will send a rotorcraft to explore Saturn's moon Titan, has passed its Critical Design Review, meaning its mission plans have been approved and the team can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself go.nasa.gov/3S6HXIS
Illustration of the Dragonfly robotic rotorcraft flying above the surface of Titan. Dragonfly has eight spinning propellers, several cameras, and landing skids similar to a helicopter.

ALT Illustration of the Dragonfly robotic rotorcraft flying above the surface of Titan. Dragonfly has eight spinning propellers, several cameras, and landing skids similar to a helicopter.

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Hello from the rim of Jezero Crater 👋 I’ve hit my fastest science-collection tempo yet, sampling three rocks since January and analyzing dozens more. One might even be 3.9 billion years old! So, what’s next? More exploration at Witch Hazel Hill. go.nasa.gov/3FYmcbp
A panorama shows a long expanse of Jezero Crater from the viewpoint of the Perseverance rover as it explores the crater's western rim. From the right are rocky outcrops and then it dips into the crater to show a pocket of sandy dunes and a long stretch of Martian surface before curving along the right to more rocky outcrops from the rim.

ALT A panorama shows a long expanse of Jezero Crater from the viewpoint of the Perseverance rover as it explores the crater's western rim. From the right are rocky outcrops and then it dips into the crater to show a pocket of sandy dunes and a long stretch of Martian surface before curving along the right to more rocky outcrops from the rim.

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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
SpaceX
@SpaceX1 Apr 2025
First views of Earth's polar regions from Dragon
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
The SETI Institute
@SETIInstitute31 Mar 2025
#PPOD: Shocking Spherules This image from @NASAPersevere, a fusion-processed SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic, shows part of the “St. Pauls Bay” target acquired from the lower Witch Hazel Hill area of the Jezero crater rim. The image reveals hundreds of strange, spherical-shaped objects comprising the rock. Perseverance acquired this image on March 11, 2025. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP #planetaryscience
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Latest in space
@latestinspace27 Mar 2025
BREAKING 🚨: NASA's Perseverance rover has found a bizarre rock with hundreds of little dark gray spheres Scientists are still investigating but believe it could've been formed by groundwater or volcanic activity
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Athanasios (Thanos) Klidaras retweeted
SPACE.com
@SPACEdotcom26 Mar 2025
NASA's Perseverance rover has encountered another rock on Mars that has left scientists puzzled. space.com/space-exploration/…

Strange sphere-studded rock on Mars found by NASA's Perseverance rover

The rock has hundreds of spherules on it, some of which have tiny pinholes.

space.com
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