It was known before that Mars was a planet more like Earth once before and it didn’t look like a desert as it looks right now. Rover found the evidence to that, holes full of water that perhaps is what is left out of the lake after millions of years.
This discovery was announced on Monday by the Science journal. Scientists came up with this news before but this time, they included more details in the report such as the measurements of the rocks and other analysis.
Gale Crater (the former lake) is in an area with rocks about 4.2 billion years old, and the lake seems to have existed about 3.6 billion years ago. The fresh-water lake is a proof of a long lasting water system that was part of rivers and groundwater.
John Grotzinger, a Caltech planetary geologist who is the chief scientist of the Curiosity rover mission stated "If we put microbes from Earth and put them in this lake on Mars, would they survive? Would they survive and thrive? And the answer is yes. In March, we did know that we had a lake, but what we weren’t sure of was how big it was and how long it lasted, and also we were not sure about the broader geological context that supports the presence of lakes coming and going for a very long time."
"This is really similar to an Earth environment," he also confirmed later during one of the conferences.
Voice of Russia, washingtonpost.com
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_10/NASA-rover-discovers-lake-on-Mars-8492/
9/12/13
The Curiosity Mars rover vehicle has damaged a wheel...
ReplyDeleteThe Curiosity Mars rover vehicle has damaged one of its wheels against a sharp rock. It happened when the rover was going through dunes to Aeolis, the central peak of the Gale crater. Since one of Curiosity’s wheels received a damage in the autumn of 2013, scientist are trying to regularly photograph all its wheels. Now, they have noticed that the rover’s front left wheel has a puncture about 5 to 8 cms long and 3 cms wide.
At present, NASA engineers are deciding what will be the safer route for the Mars rover now, taking the damage into account.
The rover has already gone nearly 5 kms after it landed on Mars.
Several days ago, NASA celebrated 10 years since its another rover vehicle, Opportunity, landed on Mars..............http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_03/The-Curiosity-Mars-rover-vehicle-has-damaged-a-wheel-3414/
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