For twelve years, we have watched Curiosity crawl its means over the rocky floor of Mars, decoding mysteries of the Pink Planet and broadcasting again residence footage and information from the unusual Martian surroundings.
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; minimize 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 telephone round for the nifty interactive characteristic. Or, if you happen to’re utilizing a desktop PC, you possibly can shift the video round with a mouse.
Associated: Little Mars ‘snowman’ noticed by NASA’s Perseverance rover (photograph)
The view reveals quite a lot of 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 way of it some eons in the past, or that robust winds are liable for the formation Or, maybe landslides cascading down from Mount Sharp’s greater 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 supplied. The rover additionally rolled over one of many white stones and cracked it open. Contained in the crushed stone have 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 workforce has but to provide you with a proof for the component’s existence on the world.
“We regarded on the sulfur subject from each angle — from the highest and the facet — and regarded for something combined with the sulfur that may give us clues as to the way it fashioned,” mentioned Curiosity’s challenge scientist Ashwin Vasavada in an announcement. “We have gathered a ton of information, and now we’ve a enjoyable puzzle to resolve.”
After over a decade of laborious travels, Curiosity stays useful, if considerably beat up from the powerful Mars floor. The rover’s subsequent vacation spot, a formation of weblike patterns referred to 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 may very well be the results of minerals carried by water into fractures alongside the mountain’s floor.
“These ridges will embody minerals that crystallized underground, the place it could have been hotter, with salty liquid water flowing by way of,” Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity scientist who’s finding out the area, mentioned in an announcement. “Early Earth microbes may have survived in the same surroundings. That makes this an thrilling place to discover.”
As Curiosity begins its journey to review the boxwork, JPL’s scientists will use the information they’ve obtained to place collectively theories on how the options throughout the Gediz Vallis channel have been fashioned. Now, the science workforce is forming a timeline of occasions, primarily based on what Curiosity noticed throughout its travels.
