Latest news with #CuriosityMars
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.'
NDTV
24-06-2025
- Science
- NDTV
Curiosity Examines Spiderweb-Like Boxwork Pattern On Mars. Here's Why It's Significant
NASA's Curiosity rover, which is currently roaming Mars looking for signs of life, recently captured an intriguing picture, showcasing a fascinating boxwork pattern. The photo was taken by the rover's Mast Camera (or Mastcam) on May 16, 2025. "NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree view after arriving at a region crisscrossed by hardened low ridges called boxwork patterns," NASA said in a blog post published on June 23. Boxwork patterns on Mars are fascinating geological formations that resemble spiderwebs or honeycombs. Scientists were captivated by these patterns even before Curiosity's 2012 landing on the Red Planet. Scientists believe that these structures are composed of hardened, low ridges of minerals that have been left behind after groundwater erosion billions of years ago. NASA said that the minerals left behind by the water hardened like cement within the rock, which was carved away after abrasive blasting by wind. The process revealed networks of resistant ridges within. The Curiosity rover has been studying these formations in the Gale Crater, which is believed to have once hosted lakes and water activity. "Since 2014, Curiosity has been exploring the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometre-tall) mountain within the crater," the post added. Here's why this pattern is important Curiosity has been learning about the Red Planet's unique environment, and the boxwork patterns suggest that groundwater played a significant role in shaping the planet's surface. These formations could hold clues to Mars' past habitability and potential for supporting life. Scientists believe that the minerals forming the Martian boxwork likely crystallised under conditions similar to those on Earth that supported early microbial life.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NASA shuts down X accounts as fears swirl about massive cuts to science initiatives
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has started consolidating dozens of its social media accounts. It'll archive platforms in coming weeks focused on the moon, the Earth's climate, the Perseverance Mars rover, and the Orion spacecraft: the Artemis program vehicle that will one day take astronauts back to the lunar surface. Some of the rudderless agency's accounts told their hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of followers not to be alarmed. 'Don't worry, my mission isn't going anywhere,' accounts for the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers and the Voyager spacecraft assured on Monday. NASA said its social media portfolio had grown to more than 400 accounts spread out across dozens of platforms. 'While each account has served an important purpose in telling our story, our focus is to improve the user experience through more cohesive messaging. We are reducing the overall number of accounts for a simplified presence that continues to inform, educate, and inspire the public,' NASA's Commercial Crew program account explained. But followers voiced concerns that streamlining communications — reportedly from 400 accounts down to just 35 — may make communication even more of a challenge for NASA. Some said NASA was 'Thanos snapping,' or described the cull as "Red Wedding Stuff.' 'This account is/was a pioneer of social media,' space journalist Elizabeth Howell said of the Curiosity Rover account. Not everyone agreed. Spaceflight photographer John Kraus said the effort was 'long overdue' and the 'right direction,' noting that the Orion and Space Launch Systems accounts could be relegated to focus on one for the entire Artemis program. 'How can we inspire the next generation when over 100 accounts on a single platform flood it with frequent posts — often multiple times daily — prioritizing posting for the sake of their own existence over quality content? It's overwhelming,' he said of X. Jared Isaacman, Trump's former pick for NASA administrator, signaled his support for that take. It comes amid renewed concerns regarding further reductions in personnel and the recently released Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal. A summary of the proposal said the Office of Communications would be restructured by eliminating functions 'not statutorily mandated,' consolidating duplicative functions, and automating 'routine tasks.' There are reports claiming this effort is already underway. Shifting focus largely on human spaceflight, the agency's proposal would slash funding for crucial initiatives that have been the product of decades of research at NASA. Those would include 41 space missions, the agency's climate monitoring satellites and top climate lab, the ongoing Mars Sample Return mission, and upcoming missions to Venus. In all, total funding would be cut by nearly a quarter, and the Planetary Society says there would be a 'devastating 47 percent cut to the agency's science program.' The budget still needs to pass through Congress. 'If enacted, this plan would decimate NASA. It would fire a third of the agency's staff, waste billions of taxpayer dollars, and turn off spacecraft that have been journeying through the Solar System for decades. Humanity would no longer explore the universe as it does today, and our ability to confront deep, cosmic questions would be set back an entire generation,' astrophysicist Dr. Asa Stahl wrote. Jacqueline McCleary, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University, called the proposed budget a 'strategic mistake.' 'Even if you want to dismantle a project or dismantle a satellite, it takes time, it takes resources,' McCleary said. 'You can't just lock the doors and [let] it sit in a warehouse forever. Sudden cuts like these are paradoxically very wasteful of taxpayer money because they're not controlled.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
16-05-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
NASA Rover Finds Fresh Evidence of Warm, Wet past of Mars
NASA / Handout via Reuters, file A 'self-portrait' of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle on Vera Rubin Ridge on the planet Mars, according to NASA, in this photo mosaic assembled from dozens of images taken and released in January 2018. WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A mineral called siderite found abundantly in rock drilled by a NASA rover on the surface of Mars is providing fresh evidence of the planet's warmer and wetter ancient past when it boasted substantial bodies of water and potentially harbored life. The Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012 to explore whether Earth's planetary neighbor was ever able to support microbial life, found the mineral in rock samples drilled at three locations in 2022 and 2023 inside Gale crater, a large impact basin with a mountain in the middle. Siderite is an iron carbonate mineral. Its presence in sedimentary rocks formed billions of years ago offers evidence that Mars once had a dense atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, a gas that would have warmed the planet through the greenhouse effect to the point that it could sustain bodies of liquid water on its surface. There are features on the Martian landscape that many scientists have interpreted as signs that liquid water once flowed across its surface, with potential oceans, lakes and rivers considered as possible habitats for past microbial life. Carbon dioxide is the main climate-regulating greenhouse gas on Earth, as it is on Mars and Venus. Its presence in the atmosphere traps heat from the sun, warming the climate. Until now, evidence indicating the Martian atmosphere previously was rich in carbon dioxide has been sparse. The hypothesis is that when the atmosphere — for reasons not fully understood — evolved from thick and rich in carbon dioxide to thin and starved of this gas, the carbon through geochemical processes became entombed in rocks in the planet's crust as a carbonate mineral. The samples obtained by Curiosity, which drills 3 to 4 centimeters down into rock to study its chemical and mineral composition, lend weight to this notion. The samples contained up to 10.5% siderite by weight, as determined by an instrument onboard the car-sized, six-wheeled rover. 'One of the longstanding mysteries in the study of Martian planetary evolution and habitability is: If large amounts of carbon dioxide were required to warm the planet and stabilize liquid water, why are there so few detections of carbonate minerals on the Martian surface?' said University of Calgary geochemist Benjamin Tutolo, a participating scientist on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover team and lead author of the study published on April 17 in the journal Science. 'Models predict that carbonate minerals should be widespread. But, to date, rover-based investigations and satellite-based orbital surveys of the Martian surface had found little evidence of their presence,' Tutolo added. Because rock similar to that sampled by the rover has been identified globally on Mars, the researchers suspect it too contains an abundance of carbonate minerals and may hold a substantial portion of the carbon dioxide that once warmed Mars. The Gale crater sedimentary rocks — sandstones and mudstones — are thought to have been deposited around 3.5 billion years ago, when this was the site of a lake and before the Martian climate underwent a dramatic change. 'The shift of Mars' surface from more habitable in the past, to apparently sterile today, is the largest-known environmental catastrophe,' said planetary scientist and study coauthor Edwin Kite of the University of Chicago and Astera Institute. 'We do not know the cause of this change, but Mars has a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere today, and there is evidence that the atmosphere was thicker in the past. This puts a premium on understanding where the carbon went, so discovering a major unsuspected deposit of carbon-rich materials is an important new clue,' Kite added. The rover's findings offer insight into the carbon cycle on ancient Mars. On Earth, volcanoes spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the gas is absorbed by surface waters — mainly the ocean — and combines with elements such as calcium to form limestone rock. Through the geological process called plate tectonics, this rock is reheated and the carbon is ultimately released again into the atmosphere through volcanism. Mars, however, lacks plate tectonics. 'The important feature of the ancient Martian carbon cycle that we outline in this study is that it was imbalanced. In other words, substantially more carbon dioxide seems to have been sequestered into the rocks than was subsequently released back into the atmosphere,' Tutolo said. 'Models of Martian climate evolution can now incorporate our new analyzes, and in turn, help to refine the role of this imbalanced carbon cycle in maintaining, and ultimately losing, habitability over Mars' planetary history,' Tutolo added.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Mars orbiter snapped this image of Curiosity trucking along down at the surface
The Curiosity Mars rover covers a lot of ground for a robot that only moves at a max speed of .1 mph. A photo snapped recently by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides a pretty cool visualization of what the rover has been up to so far this year, showing the tracks Curiosity left behind as it journeyed from its previous science target — an area called the Gediz Vallis channel — to its next destination. The rover itself is just a tiny speck at the front of the roughly 1,050-foot-long trail, and according to NASA, this snap 'is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the Red Planet.' The image was captured on February 28 by the orbiter's HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, and shows Curiosity's movement over 11 drives starting at the beginning of that month. While a few weeks might seem like a long time for tire tracks to stick around in the dirt, this is normal for Mars. The tracks are '[l]ikely to last for months before being erased by wind,' NASA says. Curiosity is expected to reach its next science destination, which is home to formations thought to have been created long ago by groundwater, in the coming weeks.
