NASA’s Curiosity Rover Catches Glimpses of Ancient Ponds and Deserts on Mars

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traversing over a transitional area between a clay-rich area to a sulphate-rich area. Within the course of, the rover has been capturing pictures of rocks that had as soon as been on the backside of a number of stream beds on the crimson planet. Harkening to a distant previous when water was discovered on the planet, the photographs and additional observations are serving to scientists piece collectively the mysteries of historical Mars and the way its as soon as vibrant panorama turned arid. Capturing a view of the sulphate-rich area, the composite present darkish boulders which are thought to have been shaped from sand deposits in historical rivers and ponds.

One of many pictures exhibits a smattering of smaller greyish rocks which are strewn throughout a hill – remnants of a a lot bigger sandstone unit that lined the world.

The composite has been stitched from 10 particular person pictures taken by Curiosity’s Mast Digital camera, or Mastcam.

“Fairly ain’t it? I am trekking by means of a transition zone between a clay-rich space and one full of sulfate. Groundwater ebbed and flowed over time by means of these geologic options, leaving a puzzle my group and I can not wait to resolve,” wrote the group behind the Curiosity rover’s Twitter deal with.

Fairly ain’t it?
I am trekking by means of a transition zone between a clay-rich space and one full of sulfate. Groundwater ebbed and flowed over time by means of these geologic options, leaving a puzzle my group and I can not wait to resolve. https://t.co/umIr7ctS3r pic.twitter.com/gZ8aSzYwtn

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) June 22, 2022

The transition between the clay-rich and sulphate-rich areas exhibits that groundwater ranges modified over time between these areas, forsaking items of a pre-historic puzzle that the scientists behind Curiosity might want to resolve.

“We not see the lake deposits that we noticed for years decrease on Mount Sharp,” defined Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s challenge scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the group that constructed and operates the rover. “As an alternative, we see a lot of proof of drier climates, like dry dunes that often had streams working round them. That is a giant change from the lakes that continued for maybe tens of millions of years earlier than.”

With Curiosity set to have fun its tenth Earth yr on Mars on August 5, the rover continues to climb greater by means of this transition zone greater onto the slopes of Mount Sharp, which the rover has been steadily climbing since 2014.