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Tag: mars (page 2 of 3)

11.07.2012

martian dirt similar to hawaiian soil

The view from the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Curosity has been examining scoop fulls of Martian soil by x-ray diffratcion and its analysis is similar to the soil in parts of Hawaii. For the scientists involved in the project this was not an unexpected result. From Scientific American:

“This Martian soil that we’ve analyzed onMars just this past week appears mineralogically similar to some weathered basaltic materials that we see on Earth,” David Bish, a CheMin co-investigator with Indiana University, told reporters. He cited as an example the “weathered soils on the flanks of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.”

…

CheMin’s first results—obtained using soil Curiosity scooped at a site called “Rocknest”—aren’t terribly surprising, researchers said.

“Much of Mars is covered with dust, and we had an incomplete understanding of its mineralogy,” Bish said in a statement. “We now know it is mineralogically similar to basaltic material, with significant amounts of feldspar, pyroxene and olivine, which was not unexpected. Roughly half the soil is non-crystalline material, such as volcanic glass or products from weathering of the glass.”

 

09.28.2012

curiosity finds signs of ancient stream

on MARS!

Martian rocks resemble rocks in a streambed from Earth.

Curiosity has taken pictures that suggest that there was once a fast moving stream of water on the planet Mars. Photos of rocks on the planet’s surface are surprisingly similar to rock formations formed in ancient streambeds here on Earth. From Associated Press:

The NASA rover Curiosity has beamed back pictures of bedrock that suggest a fast-moving stream, possibly waist-deep, once flowed on Mars — a find that the mission’s chief scientist called exciting.

There have been previous signs that water existed on the red planet long ago, but the images released Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, likely by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed.

There was “a vigorous flow on the surface of Mars,” said chief scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology. “We’re really excited about this.”

The discovery did not come as a complete surprise. NASA decided to plunk Curiosity down inside Gale Crater near the Martian equator because photos from space hinted that the spot possessed a watery past. The six-wheeled rover safely landed Aug. 5 after a nail-biting plunge through the Martian atmosphere. It’s on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to study whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for microbial life.

Martian rock formations near Curiosity’s landing site are thought to have been molded by an ancient fast moving stream of water.

09.25.2012

curiosity and the martian rock

Mars rover Curiosity lasers a rock named Jake.

The Curiosity rover made its first contact with Martian rock this past weekend. It shot lasers at a rock named “Jake Matijevic” in order to analyze its chemical composition. This is Curiosity’s first scientific experiment. Results pending… From nasa.gov:

After a short drive the preceding day to get within arm’s reach of the football-size rock, Curiosity put its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument in contact with the rock during the rover’s 46th Martian day, or sol. The APXS is on a turret at the end of the rover’s 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), on the same turret, was used for close-up inspection of the rock. Both instruments were also used on Jake Matijevic on Sol 47 (Sept. 23).

The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which shoots laser pulses at a target from the top of Curiosity’s mast, also assessed what chemical elements are in the rock Jake Matijevic. Using both APXS and ChemCam on this rock provides a cross calibration of the two instruments.

More details at Scientific American and nasa.gov.

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