Latest news with #AshwinVasavada
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Curiosity Cracked Open a Rock on Mars And Discovered a Huge Surprise
A rock on Mars spilled a surprising yellow treasure after Curiosity accidentally cracked through its unremarkable exterior. When the rover rolled its 899-kilogram (1,982-pound) body over the fragile lump of mineral in May last year the deposit broke open, revealing yellow crystals of elemental sulfur: brimstone. Although sulfates are fairly common on Mars, this represents the first time sulfur has been found on the red planet in its pure elemental form. Related: What's even more exciting is that the Gediz Vallis Channel, where Curiosity found the rock, is littered with objects that look suspiciously similar to the sulfur rock before it got fortuitously crushed – suggesting that, somehow, elemental sulfur may be abundant there in some places. "Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert," said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in July 2024. "It shouldn't be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting." Sulfates are salts that form when sulfur, usually in compound form, mixes with other minerals in water. When the water evaporates, the minerals mix and dry out, leaving the sulfates behind. These sulfate minerals can tell us a lot about Mars, such as its water history, and how it has weathered over time. Pure sulfur, on the other hand, only forms under a very narrow set of conditions, which are not known to have occurred in the region of Mars where Curiosity made its discovery. There are, to be fair, a lot of things we don't know about the geological history of Mars, but the discovery of scads of pure sulfur just hanging about on the Martian surface suggests that there's something pretty big that we're not aware of. Sulfur, it's important to understand, is an essential element for all life. It's usually taken up in the form of sulfates, and used to make two of the essential amino acids living organisms need to make proteins. Since we've known about sulfates on Mars for some time, the discovery doesn't tell us anything new in that area. We're yet to find any signs of life on Mars, anyway. But we do keep stumbling across the remains of bits and pieces that living organisms would find useful, including chemistry, water, and past habitable conditions. Stuck here on Earth, we're fairly limited in how we can access Mars. Curiosity's instruments were able to analyze and identify the sulfurous rocks in the Gediz Vallis Channel, but if it hadn't taken a route that rolled over and cracked one open, it could have been sometime until we found the sulfur. The next step will be to figure out exactly how, based on what we know about Mars, that sulfur may have come to be there. That's going to take a bit more work, possibly involving some detailed modeling of Mars's geological evolution. Meanwhile, Curiosity will continue to collect data on the same. The Gediz Vallis channel is an area rich in Martian history, an ancient waterway whose rocks now bear the imprint of the ancient river that once flowed over them, billions of years ago. Curiosity drilled a hole in one of the rocks, taking a powdered sample of its interior for chemical analysis, and is still trundling its way deeper along the channel, to see what other surprises might be waiting just around the next rock. An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024. First Visual Evidence Confirms A Star Exploded Twice Largest Mars Rock on Earth Could Sell For US$4 Million Here's How to Watch Mercury Photobomb Your 4th of July Fireworks
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Close-up images of The Red Planet's ridges from Mars Rover show ‘dramatic evidence' of water
Close-up images of a region of Mars scientists had previously only seen from orbit have revealed 'dramatic evidence' of where water once flowed on the Red Planet. The new images taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover raises fresh questions about how the Martian surface was changing billions of years ago. Mars once had rivers, lakes, and possibly an ocean, NASA said. Scientists aren't sure why the water eventually dried up, leading the planet to transform into the chilly desert it is today. Curiosity's images show evidence of ancient groundwater crisscrossing low ridges, arranged in what geologists call a boxwork pattern, the space agency said. 'By the time Curiosity's current location formed, the long-lived lakes were gone in Gale Crater, the rover's landing area, but water was still percolating under the surface,' NASA said in a news release. 'The rover found dramatic evidence of that groundwater when it encountered crisscrossing low ridges.' 'The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike,' the release continued. 'Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals, revealing networks of resistant ridges within.' The rover has been exploring the planet's Mount Sharp since 2014, where the boxwork patterns have been found. Curiosity essentially 'time travels' as it ascends from the oldest to youngest layers, searching for signs of water and environments that could have supported ancient microbial life, NASA explained. 'A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here,' Curiosity's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, said. 'As we drive on, we'll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.' In another clue, scientists observed that the ridges have small fractures filled with the salty mineral calcium sulfate, left behind by groundwater. Curiosity's deputy project scientist, Abigail Fraeman, said it was a 'really surprising' discovery. 'These calcium sulfate veins used to be everywhere, but they more or less disappeared as we climbed higher up Mount Sharp,' Fraeman said. 'The team is excited to figure out why they've returned now.'
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First close-up images of Mars ridges show "dramatic evidence" of water
NASA's Curiosity rover has captured the first close-up images of a part of Mars that scientists say provide evidence of how water once flowed on the red planet. There were once rivers, lakes and possibly an ocean on Mars, but they eventually dried up and the planet became the desert it is currently, according to NASA. The new images by Curiosity show "dramatic evidence" of ancient groundwater in crisscrossing low ridges, arranged in "a boxwork pattern," stretching across miles of a mountain on Mars, the space agency said. "The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike," NASA said in a news release. The ridges look like spiderweb patterns from space and had previously only been observed from orbit, NASA said. "A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here," Curiosity's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, said. "As we drive on, we'll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target." The ridges have small fractures filled with calcium sulfate, left behind by groundwater, which had not been found before in this part of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall mountain Curiosity is currently climbing, NASA said. "That's really surprising," said Curiosity's deputy project scientist, Abigail Fraeman. "These calcium sulfate veins used to be everywhere, but they more or less disappeared as we climbed higher up Mount Sharp. The team is excited to figure out why they've returned now." Curiosity landed in the planet's Gale Crater in 2012. It has been climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp since 2014, searching for signs of environments that could have supported life, according to NASA. Former U.S. ambassador to Israel says Israel-Iran ceasefire has good chance of holding Fed Chair Powell says economy is in a solid position despite uncertainty What to know about Trump plans for future Iran negotiations, NATO defense spending agreement
News18
25-06-2025
- Science
- News18
NASA's Curiosity Rover Sends Photos Of Rocks On Mars That Hint At Ancient Rivers
Last Updated: Images reveal 'boxwork' patterns suggesting Mars once had a flowing underground water system. NASA's Curiosity rover has sent back detailed close-up images of Martian rock formations that the space agency's scientists say offer some of the strongest evidence yet of ancient groundwater flow on the red planet. The images, taken from the slopes of a mountain inside Mars' Gale Crater, show a network of low ridges etched in a striking crisscross pattern. According to NASA, these ridges likely formed when mineral-rich groundwater moved through the bedrock, depositing material that eventually hardened into the structures now captured by Curiosity. 'The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals… hardening and becoming cementlike," the agency said in a statement. 'The rover found dramatic evidence of that groundwater when it encountered crisscrossing low ridges, some just a few inches tall, arranged in what geologists call a boxwork pattern," NASA said in a blogpost on its site. Exploring an area previously only seen from orbit, the Curiosity rover has found dramatic new evidence of ancient groundwater. The rover is using its drill to snag samples of rock that will give geologists new clues to how this area formed. — NASA Mars (@NASAMars) June 23, 2025 NASA first released the video and the images in a blog post on its website on Monday. 'A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here. As we drive on, we'll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target," Ashwin Vasavada, a scientist of the Curiosity Project and a member of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, was quoted as saying in the space agency's blog post. Scientists believe Mars once had rivers, lakes and perhaps even an ocean, but the planet gradually dried up as it lost its atmosphere. NASA's Curiosity rover was built by a team in California at a place called the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL. They work with NASA to explore Mars and learn more about the red planet as part of a big space program.
CBS News
25-06-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Mars rover captures first close-up images of ridges that hint at planet's watery past in "really surprising" discovery
NASA's Curiosity rover has captured the first close-up images of a part of Mars that scientists say provide evidence of how water once flowed on the red planet. There were once rivers, lakes and possibly an ocean on Mars, but they eventually dried up and the planet became the desert it is currently, according to NASA. The new images by Curiosity show "dramatic evidence" of ancient groundwater in crisscrossing low ridges, arranged in "a boxwork pattern," stretching across miles of a mountain on Mars, the space agency said. "The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike," NASA said in a news release. NASA's Curiosity rover took images of ridges that scientists think may have been formed by ancient groundwater. NASA The ridges look like spiderweb patterns from space and had previously only been observed from orbit, NASA said. "A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here," Curiosity's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, said. "As we drive on, we'll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target." The ridges have small fractures filled with calcium sulfate, left behind by groundwater, which had not been found before in this part of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall mountain Curiosity is currently climbing, NASA said. "That's really surprising," said Curiosity's deputy project scientist, Abigail Fraeman. "These calcium sulfate veins used to be everywhere, but they more or less disappeared as we climbed higher up Mount Sharp. The team is excited to figure out why they've returned now." Curiosity landed in the planet's Gale Crater in 2012. It has been climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp since 2014, searching for signs of environments that could have supported life, according to NASA.
