The 'Curiosity' is further evidence of surface water ... - 20minutos.es

NASA’s Curiosity rover found new evidence of the existence of liquid water on Mars in the past. The vehicle has achieved these tests after breaking various rocks and sandstone analyze the planet’s surface.

their way to Mount Sharp, Curiosity has stopped to examine some rocks located in an area observed first by a spacecraft in orbit. The region was chosen because it could provide evidence of how water plays an important role in the stratification of the rocks in this region, as it has been.

class=”imp”> red dust layer covering the planet is about 2% of water The vehicle “has examined pebbles, stone and sandstone deposited by water, supposed, flowed over the surface , and veins or fractures in the rock, “indicated those responsible for the mission. When these residues were analyzed it was found that the most abundant gas was H2O.

Laurie Leshin

researcher assured Science that the layer of red dust that covers the surface of the plant is approximately 2% water. The finding could be a useful resource for future astronauts, as scientists themselves.

“Think that with about a cubic foot of this powder after being heated to a few hundred degrees, you can get two large glasses of water, it’s like the two bottles that you get to the gym”, said Dr. Leshin , was quoted by the BBC .

Similarly, the detected Curiosity “organic compounds” , but scientists are not sure of its origin.

class=”quote_new”> One cubic foot of this powder, after being heated, can give two large glasses of water Curiosity landed on Mars inside Gale Crater in August 2012 to determine if the Red Planet has been able to support microbial life at some point in its history. The robot found there the main objective of the mission, finding a place that was really humid area for billions of years.

In July this year, Curiosity began its journey to Sharp, the main destination of the rover since before its launch. Researchers want to raise the robot through the hills of the mountain and studying its many layers. In his view, this will give clues to changes in environmental conditions of Mars.

The rover team also wants to understand the geology of the area between Gale Crater and Mount Sharp. “If one fluid flow is responsible for the veins on the mountain and in the valley, is hoped that these have the same composition,” stated one of the researchers, David Sumner.

“If we see that the veins are different we know that history is complicated and will use these observations to reconstruct long-term history,” he added.