Science
NASA's Curiosity rover has only been on the surface of Mars for 7 weeks, but it has already helped uncover evidence that water has flowed on the planet in the past. The robot sent photos of classic clumps of debris, which consist of gravel and sand.
Scientists working with the rover reported that the size and round shape of the pebbles indicate that they were moved by water currents and that the rocks therefore remained hewn by water. Researchers believe that the rover discovered nothing more than a network of ancient Martian rivers.
The rocks that were described at a briefing by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are likely to have formed about a few billion years ago. Real water flows may have flowed across the Martian surface for a long time, probably several thousand to several million years.
Satellites have sent photos of canals on the surface of Mars many times, which has led to speculation that rivers once existed on the planet. Curiosity, after landing in the Galé equatorial crater, provided the first real confirmation of these assumptions.
Fortunately, the rover found an impressive sample of clumps of debris. A large block 10-15 centimeters thick protruded from the ground at an angle. “We named it Hota,” said John Grotzinger, a researcher working on the project. This is the name of a lake in northwestern Canada. Scientists used names from this terrestrial region to register the objects of the Calais crater.
Researchers are now carefully analyzing pebble images of these deposits. The size and shape of the stones can provide clues to the speed and length of ancient water streams. This place is located at the northern edge of the crater and the huge mountain that rises above the central valley.
Previously obtained images of this region from orbit allowed us to conclude that there could be water here. Curiosity helped confirm this hypothesis. Scientists believe that the rover is currently at the top of the removal cone, which was formed as a result of the flow of water along the walls of the crater into the valley. The water flowed down in the form of many separate streams. Researchers even believe that they can identify a special area on the edge of the crater where water entered it. They named this site Peace Vallis.
Scientists also plan to study the chemical composition of the rocks in this area to find out what kind of water flowed here, for example, to find out its acidity index. This will make it possible to understand what kind of environment existed at that time.
The rover is currently heading to an area called Glenelg. Scientists hope that the rover will find other rocks of interest to them there.
The US Space Agency allocated $2.6 billion for the Curiosity mission. The rover landed on the surface of Mars on August 6. Most of the time since researchers have spent putting the complex machine into operation, this six-wheeled vehicle has a set of 10 different tools.
Curiosity will operate for about 1 Martian year (2 Earth years). Its main task is to find out whether the environment in the Gale crater may have contributed to the emergence of microbial life in the past.