Like a pilgrim seeking wisdom, NASA’s MSL Curiosity has been working its way up Mt. Sharp, the dominant central feature in Gale Crater. Now, almost 12 years into its mission, the capable rover has reached an interesting feature that could tell them more about Mars and its watery history. It’s called the Gediz Vallis channel.
Continue reading “Curiosity has Reached an Ancient Debris Channel That Could Have Been Formed by Water”Mars’ Gale Crater was Filled with Water for Much Longer Than Anyone Thought
Even with all we’ve learned about Mars in recent years, it doesn’t stack up against all we still don’t know and all we hope to find out. We know that Mars was once warm and wet, a conclusion that was less certain a couple of decades ago. Now, scientists are working on uncovering the details of Mars’s ancient water.
New research shows that the Gale Crater, the landing spot for NASA’s MSL Curiosity, held water for a longer time than scientists thought.
Continue reading “Mars’ Gale Crater was Filled with Water for Much Longer Than Anyone Thought”Curiosity Finds Another Metal Meteorite on Mars
MSL Curiosity is going about its business exploring Mars. The high-tech rover is currently exploring the sulphate-bearing unit on Mt. Sharp, the central peak in Mars’ Gale Crater. Serendipity placed a metal meteorite in its path.
Continue reading “Curiosity Finds Another Metal Meteorite on Mars”There are Natural Features on Mars That Could Serve as Radiation Shelters
Mars is bombarded with radiation. Without a protective magnetic shield and a thick atmosphere like Earth’s, radiation from space has a nearly unimpeded path to the Martian surface. Our machines can roam around on the surface and face all that radiation with impunity. But not humans. For humans, all that radiation is a deadly hazard.
How can any potential human explorers cope with that?
Well, they’ll need shelter. And they’ll either have to bring it along with them or build it there somehow.
Or maybe not. Maybe they could use natural features as part of their protection.
Continue reading “There are Natural Features on Mars That Could Serve as Radiation Shelters”Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules That Could Have Been Produced by Life on Mars
What do coal, crude oil, and truffles have in common? Go ahead. We’ll wait.
The answer is thiophenes, a molecule that behaves a lot like benzene. Crude oil, coal, and truffles all contain thiophenes. So do a few other substances. MSL Curiosity found thiophenes on Mars, and though that doesn’t conclusively prove that Mars once hosted life, its discovery is an important milestone for the rover. Especially since truffles are alive, and oil and coal used to be, sort of.
Continue reading “Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules That Could Have Been Produced by Life on Mars”Molecular Oxygen on Mars is Behaving Unusually Through the Seasons. A Sign of Life?
An atmospheric drama has been playing out on Mars lately. Up until now, the main actor has been methane, and its unusual, spiking behaviour. But now Oxygen is taking the stage, and performing some theatrics of its own.
Continue reading “Molecular Oxygen on Mars is Behaving Unusually Through the Seasons. A Sign of Life?”There’s the Curiosity Rover, On the Move, Seen from Space
If the Curiosity rover was paranoid, would it feel like it was being watched? Well, it is being watched, by its brother in orbit, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The MRO watched Curiosity as it travelled through the ‘Clay-Bearing Unit‘ in Gale Crater, during June and July, 2019.
Continue reading “There’s the Curiosity Rover, On the Move, Seen from Space”Pictures from Curiosity Show the Bottom of an Ancient Lake on Mars, the Perfect Place to Search for Evidence of Past Life
It’s all about the detail.
In a way, Mars looks like a dusty, dead, dry, boring planet. But science says otherwise. Science says that Mars used to be wet and warm, with an atmosphere. And science says that it was wet and warm for billions of years, easily long enough for life to appear and develop.
But we still don’t know for sure if any life did happen there.
Continue reading “Pictures from Curiosity Show the Bottom of an Ancient Lake on Mars, the Perfect Place to Search for Evidence of Past Life”