For twelve years, we have watched Curiosity crawl its method over the rocky floor of Mars, decoding mysteries of the Pink Planet and broadcasting again dwelling photos and knowledge from the unusual Martian atmosphere.
The Mars rover, constructed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has slowly scaled Mount Sharp since 2014. This mountain, formally monikered “Aeolis Mons,” was found within the Nineteen Seventies; lower into its alien panorama is the boulder-packed Gediz Vallis channel, which some scientists consider to be an historic river mattress.
Curiosity crossed into Gediz Vallis earlier this yr — and, yesterday, JPL launched an actual deal with for Mars lovers: a 360-degree panorama view of the Gediz Vallis channel.
You may play the YouTube video and transfer your cellphone round for the nifty interactive characteristic. Or, for those who’re utilizing a desktop PC, you’ll be able to shift the video round with a mouse.
Associated: Little Mars ‘snowman’ noticed by NASA’s Perseverance rover (photograph)
The view reveals quite a few the Martian options that encompass the Gediz Vallis channel, together with Kukenán Butte, Pinnacle Ridge, Texoli Butte and even a distant glimpse of Gale Crater Rim.
Precisely how the channel got here to be is presently up for debate amongst scientists. It is attainable water flowed by it some eons in the past, or that robust winds are liable for the formation Or, maybe landslides cascading down from Mount Sharp’s larger elevations created Gediz Vallis, which may clarify the boulders and particles Curiosity has discovered alongside its journey.
Among the many particles are mysterious white sulfur stones, that are labeled within the panoramic view JPL offered. The rover additionally rolled over one of many white stones and cracked it open. Contained in the crushed stone had been yellow crystals of sulfur. As a result of the sulfur on Earth comes from sizzling springs and volcanoes, neither of which have been discovered on Mars, the JPL crew has but to give you a proof for the ingredient’s existence on the world.
“We appeared on the sulfur discipline from each angle — from the highest and the aspect — and appeared for something combined with the sulfur that may give us clues as to the way it shaped,” stated Curiosity’s challenge scientist Ashwin Vasavada in a statement. “We have gathered a ton of information, and now we now have a enjoyable puzzle to unravel.”
After over a decade of onerous travels, Curiosity stays purposeful, if considerably beat up from the robust Mars floor. The rover’s subsequent vacation spot, a formation of weblike patterns known as “the boxwork,” lies additional alongside Mount Sharp. First glimpsed in 2006 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the boxwork spans six to 12 miles and might be the results of minerals carried by water into fractures alongside the mountain’s floor.
“These ridges will embrace minerals that crystallized underground, the place it will have been hotter, with salty liquid water flowing by,” Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity scientist who’s learning the area, stated in a press release. “Early Earth microbes may have survived in the same atmosphere. That makes this an thrilling place to discover.”
As Curiosity begins its journey to check the boxwork, JPL’s scientists will use the info they’ve acquired to place collectively theories on how the options inside the Gediz Vallis channel had been shaped. Now, the science crew is forming a timeline of occasions, based mostly on what Curiosity noticed throughout its travels.
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