random walk
GLAMOUR SHOT
Although it might appear that a martian was needed to take this photo, this is actually a self-portrait captured by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on October 31, 2012. Sitting at the end of the rover’s 2.1-meter-long robotic arm, the scientific camera snapped 55 hi-res images from different angles. The photos were stitched together to produce this mosaic, which includes only part of the robotic arm. Images like this one help mission engineers document the state of the rover. In the photo, Curiosity is parked at Rocknest, an area in Gale Crater where the rover scooped its first soil samples, as evidenced by the four visible scoop scars. The base of Mount Sharp—the science team’s ultimate target—appears in the upper-right corner of the picture. —KF
GALEX
NUSTAR
Getting Get For several years, biochemist
Bil Clemons and members of his lab have been picking apart a protein pathway known as the GET pathway, which ushers certain proteins to their proper locations in the membranes of cells. Recently, Clemons and graduate student Justin Chartron used Caltech’s nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facilities to determine the structure of several previously unknown proteins in the pathway. This cartoon diagram shows a complex that incorporates two of the newly characterized proteins, Sgt2 (blue) and Get5 (maroon). —KF
PALOMAR 200-INCH
KECK OBSERVATORY
CAHILL CENTER
Studying the heavens from an observatory atop a remote mountain? That’s so 20th century. Nowadays, astronomers can control some of the world’s most powerful telescopes—even ones in space—without leaving the comfort of the Caltech campus. In fact, from within the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics on California Boulevard, astronomers can operate the twin 10-meter telescopes at Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory, and the space telescopes GALEX and NuSTAR—GALEX captures the ultraviolet light produced by the cosmos, while NuSTAR detects high-energy X-rays. —MW
8
E N G I N E E R ING & SC IE NCE
SPRING 2 0 1 3