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 knowledge from the unusual Martian setting.
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 imagine to be an historical 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’ll be able to play the YouTube video and transfer your cellphone round for the nifty interactive function. Or, when you’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 exhibits numerous 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 at present up for debate amongst scientists. It is attainable water flowed by way of it some eons in the past, or that sturdy winds are liable for the formation Or, maybe landslides cascading down from Mount Sharp’s increased 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 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 staff has but to give you an evidence for the factor’s existence on the world.
“We regarded on the sulfur discipline from each angle — from the highest and the facet — and regarded for something blended with the sulfur which may give us clues as to the way it fashioned,” mentioned Curiosity’s venture scientist Ashwin Vasavada in an announcement. “We have gathered a ton of knowledge, and now we’ve got a enjoyable puzzle to resolve.”
After over a decade of arduous travels, Curiosity stays useful, if considerably beat up from the robust 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 will have been hotter, with salty liquid water flowing by way of,” Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity scientist who’s learning the area, mentioned in an announcement. “Early Earth microbes may have survived in an identical setting. That makes this an thrilling place to discover.”
As Curiosity begins its journey to review 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 fashioned. Now, the science staff is forming a timeline of occasions, primarily based on what Curiosity noticed throughout its travels.
