Today’s physics news: Ada Lovelace day Wikipedia edit-a-thon, Curiosity gets up close to Martian rock

Physics news for Wednesday 26 September 2012.

Women of Wikipedia edit planned

The Wikipedia profiles of women in technology and engineering will be updated at an “edit-a-thon” held at the Royal Society next month as part of Ada Lovelace day. Ada Lovelace day aims to raise the profile of women currently working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

BBC

Mars rover examines rock close up

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has completed its first close-contact science. The robot pushed its arm instruments up against a pyramidal rock to assess the atomic elements that were present. The rock – dubbed “Jake Matijevic” after a late rover engineer – was not expected to have high research value. Rather, it was regarded as an early opportunity to demonstrate the performance of the arm’s “hand lens” and X-ray spectrometer.

BBC

Hubble astronomers capture deepest view yet of night sky

Piecing together 10 years of Hubble space telescope images, astronomers on Tuesday unveiled the deepest view yet of a small sliver of the night sky, revealing a kaleidoscope of galaxies and other celestial objects. The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, adds another 5,500 galaxies to Hubble’s 2003 and 2004 view into a tiny patch of the farthest universe.

The Guardian