See Full Size NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, Gediz Vallis After a year of exploration in the region known as the Canal, it is preparing to set off towards a new target. Before the vehicle leaves this mysterious area 360 degree panoramic captured an image and provided the science team with unique data. These images contain critical information about the formation of the channel and the increasingly dry climate of Mars.
A unique landscape
See Full Size It is located in the Gediz Vallis channel at the foot of the 5 km high Mount Sharp and was encountered during the exploration. white colored sulfur stonesstunned Curiosity’s science team. These stones, which were impossible to notice in previous images taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), were detected for the first time with Curiosity. Even more surprising, the vehicle crushed a stone, revealing the area to be full of yellow crystals.
See Full Size The scientific instruments on Curiosity detected these stones. pure sulfur confirmed that it was. However, scientists still cannot explain why and how this sulfur formed here. While sulfur is generally associated with volcanoes and hot springs on Earth, no evidence was found to support such a formation in the Gediz Vallis region.
“We collected a ton of data and now we have a fun puzzle to solve,” said Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). says
New target: Boxwork
See Full Size Curiosity’s next stop is “boxworkA large region of mineral formations called ‘formes’ creates spider web-like patterns on the surface of Mars. Scientists think that these structures were formed when minerals carried by Mount Sharp’s last water currents crystallized in rock cracks. As the rocks on the surface are worn away by erosion, what remains is network-like structures made of these minerals.
See Full Size Scientists state that such structures are also found on Earth, as in the image above, but the boxwork formation on Mars is unique with its huge size (10-20 kilometers) and the fact that it was formed during the period when water began to disappear. It is stated that these structures may contain minerals that crystallize in the warmer underground where salty liquid water flows. It is thought that microbes may have survived in similar structures on the early Earth.
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