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 Start page Mössbauer on Mars Martian MB data Mössbauer spectroscopy Projects MIMOS II Former developments Team Publications Public Relations Contact/Links Jobs/Diploma Theses/etc. Countdown:
MER-A 'Spirit' 2956 days (2883 sols) since landing MER-B 'Opportunity' 2936 days (2864 sols) since landing |
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About our group:
We are using the Mössbauer effect to study minerals, new (artificial) materials, magnetism, implantation effects and surface properties. One of our main activities is the development of different kinds of Mössbauer spectrometers. As one highlight we built a miniaturized backscattering spectrometer, which was sent to planet Mars in the year 2003. It will investigate the mineralogy of the iron containing surface soils and rocks as well as answer questions about the possibility of life on Mars. 22.09.2011 In Memoriam Rudolf L. Mößbauer -The man died, but his idea lives on.- With sadness we take leave of Professor Rudolf L. Mößbauer. Mößbauer-Group, AK Klingelhöfer, University Mainz It is with deepest sadness that the International Board on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (IBAME) announces the passing of its Honorary Member, the father of our method, Professor Rudolf L. Mößbauer Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany who died on 14 September 2011. Rudolf Mößbauer was born in Munich. He graduated from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 1955 and prepared his PhD thesis in 1957-58 at the same university under the auspices of Heinz Maier-Leibnitz the latter work has been performed in Heidelberg, at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, though. In his PhD work, he described and explained the recoilless nuclear fluorescence of gamma rays in 191Ir, i.e. the Mössbauer effect. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1961. In 1960, Rudolf Mößbauer was invited to Caltech where he became a full professor in 1962. In 1964, he returned to TUM Munich where he was a full professor until 1997 when he became professor emeritus. From 1972 to 1977 he was the director of the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France and played an important role in introducing the user regime at the ILL high-flux reactor. Although, since the mid-seventies, Mößbauer's interest has gradually shifted towards neutrino physics, he has never lost either scientific or personal contact to the Mössbauer effect and the international Mössbauer community, respectively. Even in the nineties he published papers on nuclear diffraction of Mössbauer radiation. He was a distinguished speaker of many Mössbauer conferences the last ICAME conferences with his participation being 1999 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and 2003 in Muscat, Oman. Rudolf Mößbauer's role in Mössbauer spectroscopy, both with the discovery of the Mössbauer effect and also with his continuing interest, can hardly be overstated. The Mössbauer Community thanked him for his unsurpassable services by having elected him the first Honorary Member of IBAME. We shall miss him. Our thoughts are with his family. The funeral services took place on Tuesday, 20 September 2011. D.L. Nagy Chair, IBAME News:
04.06.2010 Carbonate-Rich Outcrops on Mars identified by the Spirit Rover NASA Rover Finds Clue to Mars Past And Environment for Life Mössbauer-Group identifies Carbonate-Rich Outcrops on Columbia Hills / Analogy with meteorite ALH 84001 
Lengthy detective work with data NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit collected in late 2005 has confirmed that an outcrop called "Comanche" contains a mineral indicating that a past environment was wet and non-acidic, possibly favorable to life. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University presse release NASA Original publication MER Rovers status update:
MER-A 'Spirit'. Gusev Crater. 2011-05-18. Sol 2621-2627. Spirit Remains Silent at Troy 
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech More than 1,300 commands were radiated to Spirit as part of the recovery effort in an attempt to elicit a response from the rover. No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). The project concluded the Spirit recovery efforts on May 25, 2011. The remaining, pre-sequenced ultra-high frequency (UHF) relay passes scheduled for Spirit on board the Odyssey orbiter will complete on June 8, 2011. Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles). MER-B 'Opportunity'. Meridiani Planum. 2011-07-28. Sol 2663-2669. Opportunity Completes Four Drives: Studies Rock Outcrop 
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech Opportunity is less than 500 meters (0.31 miles) from "Spirit Point," the first landfall on the rim of Endeavour crater. The rover drove four times in the last week on Sols 2663, 2664, 2667 and 2668 (July 22, 23, 26 & 27, 2011), totaling over 460 meters (0.29 miles) of drive distance. The right-front wheel currents remain behaved. On Sol 2669 (July 28, 2011), Opportunity paused in her driving to collect a microscopic imager (MI) mosaic of the surface and an overnight alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) spectrum of exposed outcrop. The rover also performed a diagnostic test of the MI poker. The results of that test will be received later today. The plan ahead is more driving. As of Sol 2668 (July 27, 2011), solar array energy production was 413 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.01 and a solar array dust factor of 0.587. Total odometry is 32,973.44 meters (32.97 kilometers, 20.49 miles). |
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