NASA’s Curiosity rover took this selfie on Oct. 11, 2019, the 2,553rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. The rover drilled twice in this region, which is nicknamed “Glen Etive.”
(Image credit ranking: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover performed some uncommon science work recently, then took a puny of a spoil to absorb the austere fantastic thing about its surroundings.
On Sept. 24, Curiosity performed a “wet chemistry” experiment for correct the 2nd time ever for the length of its seven years on the Red Planet, dropping a drilled sample into a certain solvent that will presumably well support the rover establish carbon-containing natural molecules.
The mission group took this step because Curiosity is now exploring an region, dubbed “Glen Etive,” that is properly off in clay minerals. Clays are appropriate at preserving many chemicals, and so they’re furthermore proof of the previous existence of liquid water.
Connected: Phenomenal Mars Photography by NASA’s Curiosity Rover (Most modern Photography)
“We now had been desirous to hunt down an region that could perhaps be compelling sufficient to cease wet chemistry,” Paul Mahaffy, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. “Now that we’re in the clay-bearing unit, now we get at closing got it.”
Mahaffy is well-known investigator of Curiosity’s Sample Prognosis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which analyzes the dirt and drilled rock powder that the six-wheeled rover collects as it explores the 96-mile-large (154 kilometers) Gale Crater.
SAM has 74 cups to settle for these samples, most of which are saved dry and then baked in a small oven to be aware what gases boil off. A mere 9 cups are reserved for the special wet-chemistry work, so the mission group has been very parsimonious in their use to now.
Curiosity had beforehand ragged a wet cup correct once, in December 2016, rapidly after the rover’s rock-dreary drill malfunctioned. Mission group members weren’t certain in the event that they had been going to be succesful of repair the drill and cease wet chemistry one day, so they performed the experiment using some free sand that Curiosity had scooped up, NASA officials said. (The group managed to repair Curiosity’s drill in 2018.)
The consequences of closing month’s experiment could presumably well not be known until subsequent twelve months, mission group members said.
“SAM’s data is awfully complex and takes time to clarify,” Mahaffy said. “But we’re all desirous to be aware what we can be taught from this contemporary region, Glen Etive.”
Annotated model of the selfie taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Oct. 11, 2019.
(Image credit ranking: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Glen Etive, and the clay-bearing unit, are on the lower slopes of Mount Interesting, the three.4-mile-excessive (5.5 km) mountain that rises from Gale’s heart. Curiosity reached the mountain’s execrable in September 2014 and has been mountain climbing the formation ever since. While doing so, the rover has been characterizing the probably habitable old atmosphere and procuring for clues about Mars’ prolonged-in the past transition from a warmth and wet world to the chilly, dry desolate tract planet we know this day.
Section of Curiosity’s upward route is visible in a brand contemporary selfie that NASA launched closing week. The listing includes 57 stitched-together photos that the robotic captured on Oct. 11 using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a digital camera mounted on the conclude of Curiosity’s 7-foot-prolonged (2.1 meters) robotic arm.
As an illustration, about 1,000 toes (300 m) in the help of Curiosity are the darkish contours of Vera Rubin Ridge, which the rover left about a twelve months in the past. And beyond the ridge is Gale Crater’s floor, which, Curiosity chanced on, once harbored a prolonged-lived lake-and-movement arrangement that could presumably well get supported Earth-like existence in the old previous.
- Feeble Mars Lakes & Laser Blasts: Curiosity Rover’s 10 Greatest Moments in 1st 5 Years
- Feeble Mars Would possibly perhaps perhaps Hold Supported Life (Photography)
- The Hit upon Life on Mars: A Photo Timeline
Mike Wall’s book about the scrutinize for alien existence, “Out There” (Huge Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Prepare him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Prepare us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Fb.
Leave a comment
Sign in to post your comment or sign-up if you don't have any account.