NASA ’s Curiosity Rover has spent the dependable part of a year scooting from a humbled lie area called Yellowknife Bay to the base of Mount Sharp . As a recent chemical substance analytic thinking performed by the robotic adventurer appearance , this region is distinctly different from that found within Gale Crater — which is precisely what NASA scientist were hoping for .
One of the reason that Gale Crater was selected was on account of mineral designation from orbit . In improver to looking for signs of habitability within the volcanic crater , NASA scientists were hopting to find elements at the base of the volcanic crater that could supply the necessary ingredients for lifespan . Encouragingly , they may have establish a likely microbic energy generator in the new samples .
Curiosity is presently making an ascent towards the base . When it arrived at a billet designated “ Confidence Hills ” within the “ Pahrump Hills ” outcrop , it end to try some reddish rock ‘n’ roll pulverisation — and it ’s pretty much what the scientists were expect . It ’s the missionary work ’s first confirmation of a mineral mapped from cranial orbit .
“ We ’re now on a path where the orbital data can aid us predict what minerals we ’ll happen and make well alternative about where to practice , ” note team member Ralph Milliken in a NASAstatement . “ analysis like these will help us place roamer - scale observations into the broad geologic account of Gale that we see from orbital data . ”
The sample was extracted by the rover ’s robotic weapon , and it was sampled by the Chemistry and Mineralogy ( CheMin ) instrument inside the scouter .
The sample contain much more hematite than any stone or soil sample previously psychoanalyse by CheMin during the two - year mission . Hematite is an atomic number 26 - oxide mineral that offers clues about ancient conditions from when it formed .
NASA explain more :
The late sample has about eight percent haematite and four percent magnetite . The drilled rock at Yellowknife Bay and on the way to Mount Sharp take at most about one percent haematite and much mellow amounts of magnetic iron-ore .
“ There ’s more oxidization involve in the new sample , ” said CheMin Deputy Principal Investigator David Vaniman of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson , Arizona .
The sample is only partly oxidized , and conservation of magnetic iron-ore and olivine indicates a gradient of oxidisation levels . That slope could have provided a chemic energy author for microbes .
The Pahrump HIlls outcrop includes multiple layers uphill from its lowest stratum , where the Confidence Hills sample was drilled . The layers vary in texture and may also vary in concentrations of hematite and other minerals . The rover team is now using Curiosity to survey the outcrop and appraise possible targets for close review and drilling . [ emphasis added ]
missionary station planners say they might have Curiosity hang close at this site for a few weeks or months before proceeding any further up the stack of geological layers forming Mount Sharp .
[ NASA| Images : NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS ]
Chemistrycuriosity roverMarsMineralsNASAScience
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