Curiosity has been exploring Mars for practically 12 years, and the diligent robotic has simply made it to its subsequent cease. As quickly because it arrived at Gediz Vallis, NASA’s Mars rover captured the rocky terrain of the winding channel which will have been carved by an historical river that when flowed on Mars.Why Tilda Swinton is Drawn to Sure CharactersNASA lately revealed the beautiful black and white, 360-degree panorama of Gediz Vallis, which was captured by the Curiosity rover on February 3 utilizing one in all its navigation cameras. The Martian rover will spend months exploring the channel, gathering clues about Mars’ doubtlessly hotter, water-filled previous.Picture: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe panorama reveals the “darkish sand that fills one facet of the channel and a particles pile rising simply behind the sand,” NASA wrote. “In the other way is the steep slope that Curiosity climbed to succeed in this space.”Scientists imagine Mars might have had our bodies of water flowing throughout its floor billions of years in the past. The Gediz Vallis channel is carved into the underlying bedrock, and is stuffed with boulders and different particles. The group behind the Curiosity mission want to collect clues as to how the channel shaped, whether or not it was carved by an historical river, wind, or dry avalanches.Studying about Gediz Vallis not solely gives a glance into Mars’ historical historical past and the opportunity of it being as soon as liveable, however might additionally recommend that water on Mars might have come and gone in phases, versus regularly disappearing because the planet turned extra dry.The Curiosity rover has been trekking the foothills of Mount Sharp since 2014, exploring layers within the decrease a part of the Martian mountain which shaped over hundreds of thousands of years amid a altering local weather on Mars. A decrease a part of these foothills included a layer wealthy in clay minerals, which shaped on account of quite a lot of water interacting with rock. As Curiosity strikes throughout Gediz Vallis, this area of Mars is enriched with sulfates, or salty minerals that usually type as water evaporates. Which means the Gediz Vallis channel shaped lengthy after Mount Sharp. The particles and boulders throughout the channel might have additionally got here from excessive up on the mountain, in line with NASA.“If the channel or the particles pile had been shaped by liquid water, that’s actually fascinating,” Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s mission scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated in a press release. “It will imply that pretty late within the story of Mount Sharp – after a protracted dry interval – water got here again, and in an enormous manner.” Extra: Issues You Didn’t Know About NASA’s Mars Rovers