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New Findings from Nasa’s Curiosity Mars Rover Cold Provide An Answer to the Mystery of What Happened to the Planet’s ancient atmosphere and how mars have evolved over time.
Researchers have long believed that mars on a thick, carbon dioxide-rain atmosphere and liquid water on the planet’s surface. That carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with martian Rocks to create carbonate minerals. Until Now, Thought, Rover Missions and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Analysis from Mars-Orbiting Satellites haven’t the Amounts of Carbonate on the Planet’s Surfaces Predicted by this.
Reported in an April paper in ScienceData from three of curiosity’s drill sites revised the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, within the Sulfate-Rich Rocky Layers of mount sharp in mars’ Gale Crater.
“The discovery of abundant siderite in gale craters repsers Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, and Lead Author of the Paper.
To study the red planet’s chemical and minional makeup, curiosity drills three to four centimeters down into the subsurface, then Drops the Powered Rock Samples Inter Its Its Chemin Instradu The instrument, LED by Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, Uses X-Ray Diffraction to Analyze Rocks and Soil. Chemin’s data was processed and analyzed by scientists at the astroomaterials research and exploration Science (Ares) Division at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Hoston.
“Drilling through the layered martian Surface is like going through a history book,” said thomas bristow, research scientist at nasa aies and coauthor of the paper. “Just a more centimeters down giving us a good idea of ââthe mineals that formed at or close to the surface Around 3.5 billion years ago.”
The discovery of this carbonate mineral in Rocks Beneath The Surface Sugges That Carbonate May Be Masked by Other Minrarals in Near-Infrade Satellite Analysis. If other sulfate-rain layers account mars also contain carbonates, the Amount of Stored Carbon Dioxide would be a fraction of that Needed in the ancient ATMOSPHERE TO Creathe Liquid water. The rest could be hidden in other deposits or have been lost to space over time.
In the future, missions or analyses of other sulfate-revols on Mars Cold Confirm These Findings and Help US Better Understand the planet’s early history and how it trucksformed as it is it.
Curiosity, Part of Nasa’s Mars Explocation Program (MEP) Portfolio, Was Built by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Which is Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of nasa’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information on curiosity, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/Mmission/MSL- Curiosity
News media contacts
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Nasa headquarters, washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov,molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
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/Curiosity%20Rover%20(MSL)%20(Clean).png "Nasa's Curiosity Rover May Have Solved Mars' Missing Carbonate Mystery - NASA 4")
(Tagstotranslate) Ames Research Center (T) Astromaterials (T) Curiosity (Rover) (T) General (T) General (T) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (T) Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
