Gale Crater tagged posts

This is the physiography of the Gale Crater shown in a HiRISE map.
Credit: NASA

The presence of water on Mars has been theorized for centuries. Early telescopes revealed ice caps, and early astronomers noted channels that were hypothesized to be natural rivers or creature-created canals. Over the past two decades, rovers Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity have sent back invaluable data to scientists who are trying to interpret the planet’s surface and uncover evidence of past or present water.

Since its landing on the “Red Planet” in August of 2012, Curiosity Rover has traveled about 20 kilometers within Gale Crater...

A global dust storm completely obscured the surface of Mars. Images from May 28 and July 1.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

When dust filled the Martian atmosphere during the recent planet-wide dust storm, observations were plentiful – even from unlikely instruments. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided the earliest insights on May 30 when it observed an accumulation of dust in the atmosphere near Perseverance Valley, where NASA’s Opportunity rover is exploring. The increasingly hazy storm, the biggest since 2007, forced Opportunity to shut down science operations by June 8, given that sunlight couldn’t penetrate the dust to power the rover’s solar panels. Scientists are anxiously waiting for the roving explorer to regain power and phone home.

Meanwhile, on June 5, evidence quiet...

A panorama of Gale crater on Mars taken from Vera Rubin ridge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mineralogist’s big data approach improves resolution of a Curiosity instrument by an order of magnitude. A team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Shaunna Morrison and including Bob Hazen have revealed the mineralogy of Mars at an unprecedented scale, which will help them understand the planet’s geologic history and habitability. Their findings are published in two American Mineralogist papers.

Minerals form from novel combinations of elements. These combinations can be facilitated by geological activity, including volcanoes and water-rock interactions...

A mosaic of images from the navigation cameras on the NASA Curiosity rover shows “halos” of lighter-toned bedrock around fractures. These halos comprise high concentrations of silica and indicate that liquid groundwater flowed through the rocks in Gale crater longer than previously believed. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Lighter-toned bedrock that surrounds fractures and comprises high concentrations of silica – called “halos” – has been found in Gale crater on Mars, indicating that the planet had liquid water much longer than previously believed. “The concentration of silica is very high at the centerlines of these halos,” said Jens Frydenvang, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Copenhagen...