Curiosity rover tagged posts

Image: For the 1st time ever, a Curiosity Mastcam Self-portrait from Mars

Image: For the first time ever, a Curiosity Mastcam self-portrait from Mars

Curiosity took the photos for this panorama shortly after arriving at the lee face of Namib dune, on sol 1197 (December 19, 2015). For the first time since landing on Mars, the panorama taken by the rover’s left Mastcam includes the entire deck of the rover, permitting a rover self-portrait. Since Mastcam is on the mast, the self-portrait does not include the rover mast, but, unlike previous self-portraits taken with the MAHLI camera, it does contain the arm. The deck was included to look for sand grains that may have been carried onto the deck of the rover from the sand dune. For a 360-degree virtual reality version of this panorama, visit Andrew Bodrov’s 360cities page. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Andrew Bodrov Read more at: http://phys...

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Climate Models used to Explain Formation of Mars Valley Networks

The Colorado River canyon, just above Grand Canyon (left), and Nanedi Vallis on Mars (right) pictured at the same scale shows how both canyons were formed by rivers that appear to have been approximately the same width. The river channel on Earth looks darker because it is filled with water, whereas Nanedi Vallis has been dry for billions of years. Credit: Sonny Harman/Penn State

The Colorado River canyon, just above Grand Canyon (left), and Nanedi Vallis on Mars (right) pictured at the same scale shows how both canyons were formed by rivers that appear to have been approximately the same width. The river channel on Earth looks darker because it is filled with water, whereas Nanedi Vallis has been dry for billions of years. Credit: Sonny Harman/Penn State

The extensive valley networks on the surface of Mars were probably created by running water billions of years ago, but the source of that water is unknown. Now, researchers are using climate models to predict how greenhouse warming could be the source of the water.

“Everyone is looking for life on Mars, and if Mars was habitable early on as indicated by flowing water, then the chances of there being some sort of l...

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Don’t forget Mars! Curiosity Finds Rocks that might point to a Continental Crust

A team from US, France, U.K. is reporting data sent back by Mars rover Curiosity suggests Mars may have once had a continental crust similar to Earth. They describe 20 rocks that had been probed by the rover, and why their findings suggest a different history for the planet than has been thought. Researchers believe they have found evidence that suggests that rather than a lack of magmatic planetary activity, which should have been evident in rock samples showing mostly basalt, rock samples are full of silica and have a rich composition.

The light-colored rock samples are from an area inside the Gale Crater (in the southern hemisphere near Mount Sharp) and have been dated back to approximately 3.6B years ago...

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