After one Martian year, or 687 Earth days, the robot Curiosity NASA has done its homework. The rover which started on 26 November 2011 in an Atlas rocket and arrived August 6, 2012 to investigate the mysteries of the red planet, Mars has shown that hosted a day conducive to house life. This finding was made possible by the concave basins, fan-shaped deposits, linear, lobed morphologies and moraine remains were found and reveal the existence of ancient glaciers .
“The crater was covered by glaciers about 3,500 million years ago,” explains scientist Astrobiology Center and Cornell University in the U.S., Alberto Fairén. The lead author of the research adds that at the time “was also rivers and lakes with very cold liquid water in areas of lower elevation within the crater»
Because of these great finds, Curiosity has gained more time on Mars. Although his mission was scheduled for one Martian year, NASA has confirmed continue their work while the vehicle’s tires can cope with the terrain . And the wheels have already been damaged at this time due to their long runs during the 600 days Trip the closest planet to Earth.
On the other hand, this is also the first time a joint past climate of Mars solution is provided, since, according Fairén, “explains while geological traces of the former presence of liquid water covering entire planet and climate models have shown that Mars was never a warm planet ‘. Follows in the case of the Gale crater, which was excavated by the impact of a large meteorite some 3,600 million years ago, which was covered with glaciers shortly after. “It is possible that the impact area was already covered by glaciers before the collision,” says the researcher, who adds that the combined energy of impact with the surface ice “is what might have generated even hydrothermal areas”.
A lake with brackish water
During the 7.9 miles you traveled Curiosity 23 days in their movements, the robot also has two stone slabs located in a zone near the crater Gale in Yellowknife Bay, which perforate after discovered that the place was “a bed of a lake with water moderately brackish, elemental ingredient for life, although not suitable for drinking, “says NASA. The vehicle, which weighs about 900 kilos and is equipped with cameras, sensors and clamps, demonstrated by measurements of the variations between the heavy and light elements in the Martian atmosphere disappeared said atmosphere processes that favored the loss light atoms .
The study published in the journal Planetary and Space Science using images captured with CTX and HiRISE orbiter cameras Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter NASA. These pictures show, for example, that the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier in Iceland is “very similar” to the crater Gale explains Fairén. There are other terrestrial glaciers Mars counterparts to systems such as the Malaspina in Alaska and other northern Canada and Antarctica.
The next target Curiosity will investigate Mount Sharp , but has previously made a stop to drill and collect a sample from a sandstone area called Windjana, interesting to scientists because it contains more magnetite than previous samples that have been made to analyze on the surface of Mars. “It is too early to draw conclusions, but we hope that the results of future research in Sharp help us better understand the merger of Martian rocks, ‘says one of those responsible for the mission scientist John Grorzinger.
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