The steep path NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took to achieve Gediz Vallis channel is indicated in yellow on this visualization made with orbital knowledge. At decrease proper is the purpose the place the rover veered off to get an up-close have a look at a ridge shaped way back by particles flows from larger up on Mount Sharp. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Berkeley
NASA’s Curiosity rover has begun exploring a brand new area of Mars, one that would reveal extra about when liquid water disappeared as soon as and for all from the Pink Planet’s floor. Billions of years in the past, Mars was a lot wetter and possibly hotter than it’s at this time. Curiosity is getting a brand new look into that extra Earth-like previous because it drives alongside and finally crosses the Gediz Vallis channel, a winding, snake-like characteristic that—from house, not less than—seems to have been carved by an historical river.
That chance has scientists intrigued. The rover group is looking for proof that will verify how the channel was carved into the underlying bedrock. The formation’s sides are steep sufficient that the group would not assume the channel was made by wind. Nonetheless, particles flows (fast, moist landslides) or a river carrying rocks and sediment might have had sufficient vitality to chisel into the bedrock. After the channel shaped, it was stuffed with boulders and different particles. Scientists are additionally desirous to study whether or not this materials was transported by particles flows or dry avalanches.
Since 2014, Curiosity has been ascending the foothills of Mount Sharp, which stands 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the ground of Gale Crater. The layers on this decrease a part of the mountain shaped over hundreds of thousands of years amid a altering Martian local weather, offering scientists with a technique to research how the presence of each water and the chemical substances required for all times modified over time.
For instance, a decrease a part of these foothills included a layer wealthy in clay minerals the place numerous water as soon as interacted with rock. Now the rover is exploring a layer enriched with sulfates—salty minerals that always kind as water evaporates.
Pan round inside this 360-degree video to see Gediz Vallis channel from the perspective of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Revising mount sharp’s timeline
It is going to take months to totally discover the channel, and what scientists study might revise the timeline for the mountain’s formation.
As soon as the sedimentary layers of decrease Mount Sharp had been deposited by wind and water, erosion whittled them down to reveal the layers seen at this time. Solely after these prolonged processes—in addition to intensely dry intervals throughout which the floor of Mount Sharp was a sandy desert—might the Gediz Vallis channel have been carved.
Scientists assume the boulders and different particles that subsequently stuffed the channel got here from excessive up on the mountain, the place Curiosity won’t ever go, giving the group a glimpse of what sorts of fabric could also be up there.
“If the channel or the particles pile have been shaped by liquid water, that is actually attention-grabbing. It could imply that pretty late within the story of Mount Sharp—after a protracted dry interval—water got here again, and in an enormous method,” mentioned Curiosity’s mission scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
After arriving at Gediz Vallis channel, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree panorama utilizing certainly one of its black-and-white navigation cameras on Feb. 3. The formation has scientists intrigued due to what it’d inform them in regards to the historical past of water on the Pink Planet. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
That rationalization could be according to one of the shocking discoveries Curiosity has made whereas driving up Mount Sharp: Water appears to have come and gone in phases, slightly than regularly disappearing because the planet grew drier. These cycles will be seen in proof of mud cracks; shallow, salty lakes; and, instantly beneath the channel, cataclysmic particles flows that piled as much as create the sprawling Gediz Vallis ridge.
Final yr, Curiosity made a difficult ascent to review the ridge, which drapes throughout the slopes of Mount Sharp and appears to develop out of the top of the channel, suggesting each are a part of one geologic system.
Viewing the channel up shut
Curiosity documented the channel with a 360-degree black-and-white panorama from the rover’s left navigation digicam. Taken on Feb. 3 (the 4,086th Martian day, or sol, of the mission), the picture reveals the darkish sand that fills one aspect of the channel and a particles pile rising simply behind the sand. In the wrong way is the steep slope that Curiosity climbed to achieve this space.
The rover takes these sorts of panoramas with its navigation cameras on the finish of every drive. Now the science group is counting on the navcams much more whereas engineers attempt to resolve a difficulty that’s limiting the usage of one imager belonging to the colour Mast Digicam, or Mastcam.
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Curiosity rover searches for brand new clues about Mars’ historical water (2024, March 30)
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