At first look, this panoramic view may resemble a sunlit desert within the American Southwest, with quiet ridges, earthy tones, and distant peaks. However look nearer: you are really seeing Mars. Captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover from the slopes of the three-mile-high Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater, this surreal panorama is a part of a shocking 30-second video displaying what the Pink Planet seems to be like up shut. What looks as if mountain ranges is definitely the rim of an historical crater, created billions of years in the past by an enormous asteroid influence. It’s the subsequent neatest thing to climbing Mars with no spacesuit.
NASA shares Earth like visuals from Mars
The panoramic video was captured earlier this 12 months whereas Curiosity explored a area often called the sulfate-bearing unit. Wealthy in salty minerals possible left behind by evaporating streams and ponds, the terrain supplies a window into Mars’ previous, when water was extra ample and the local weather was extra Earth-like. These options assist scientists perceive how Mars reworked from a doubtlessly liveable world right into a frozen desert.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover’s observe report
Curiosity, which launched in 2011 and landed in 2012, has traveled over 352 million miles. That features about 20 miles rumbling over Martian soil. Final 12 months, its wheels uncovered a shock: pure elemental sulfur, a substance that on Earth is commonly linked to volcanic exercise and even microbial life. This surprising discovery continues to gas scientific curiosity in regards to the planet’s potential to have as soon as supported life.
Curiosity’s subsequent cease to ‘Boxwork’
Curiosity’s subsequent cease is an odd terrain referred to as “boxwork,” the place mineral ridges type web-like patterns throughout the bottom. Scientists suppose this area fashioned when the final trickles of Martian water deposited minerals in rock cracks. These formations could maintain clues in regards to the planet’s final liveable phases and presumably about historical microbial life.
Greater than only a drive
Though Curiosity is just not anticipated to achieve the boxwork till late fall, the rover’s crew continues to pause and research the fascinating geology alongside the best way. As planetary geologist Catherine O’Connell-Cooper places it, “We’re not simply rushing previous the cool issues.” Every cease affords new scientific insights and spectacular views from 140 million miles away.
