Over the past ten years, Curiosity has roamed the terrain of Mars in search of evidence of it Potentially habitable from the past on planet Earth. Recently, a car-sized robot passed through a transition zone, moving from an area that once had surface lakes to one that indicated drier conditions for the red planet.
from NASA Curiosity roaming Note the changing landscape atop Mars Mountain, which the robot has been climbing since 2014. The 3.4-mile (5 kilometer) Mount Sharp is the central summit of the Martian Gale Crater, whose rover is exploring ancient water markers. At the foot of Mount Sharp, Curiosity has collected evidence of clay minerals It was formed from the lakes and streams that flowed through the Gale Crater. But up the mountain, those streams seemingly dried up into trains and sand dunes that formed on top of the lake sediments.
This so-called transition zone is characterized by the transformation from a region rich in mud to one filled with salty sulfur, and could indicate a significant change in the Martian climate that occurred billions of years ago. The higher Curiosity on Mount Sharp, the less mud it detects and the higher the sulfate. Curiosity will soon begin drilling the last rock sample from the transition zone in hopes of learning more about the changing mineral composition of the rocks in this area.
“We no longer see the lake sediments that we saw years ago low on Mount Sharp,” Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a NASA statement. press release. Instead, we see plenty of evidence of drier climates, such as dry sand dunes that were sometimes surrounded by streams. This is a big change from lakes that lasted for millions of years before.
G/O Media may receive a commission
The area Curiosity is currently exploring also has hills that may have formed under dry conditions, and those hills feature large, windswept sand dunes that will likely harden into rock over time, according to NASA. During this time, the rover also found evidence of sediments carried by water currents through the sand dunes. These deposits now appear as stacked layers of excavated rock.
Although Mars is a desolate and dry planet today, scientists believe that It may one day be habitable with lakes and other bodies of water on its surface. at the beginning of its historyMars somehow lost part of its atmosphere and dried up its water. Different Robotics Missions, from NASA and other space agencies, worked to piece this ancient history together. The new rover landed on Mars, the Perseverance, in February 2021 and it was In search of microfossilsPreserved evidence of ancient microbial life.
He is approaching his tenth birthday Anniversary on Mars, Curiosity is beginning to show signs of aging. On June 7, Curiosity entered frightening safe mode when its temperature reading showed warmer than usual temperatures, according to NASA. The rover is back in action two days later, but NASA engineers are still investigating the cause of the problem, hoping it won’t affect rover operations as it climbs over a new era of space, The Mars Story.
“Infuriatingly humble internet buffs. Proud hooligans. Web lover. businessman. Award-Winning Music Lawyer.”