Although spectacular photos were shared with us as late as this May, Mars continues to surprise, and so does the Curiosity Rover.
On earth, preservation of organic materials from days way past in quartz (high levels of silica) is common, so when the rover found rocks with high concentration levels of silica in a region called “Marias Pass”, that was definitely grounds for excitement … and followup study.
Another area of interest near the same region showed regions of sedimentation, which may show that Mars had water at one time.
Neither area is very big physically, but scientifically it is simply fascinating.
Check out the article, it is well worth your time …
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock A rock fragment dubbed “Lamoose” is shown in this picture taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA’s Curiosity rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Approaching the third anniversary of its landing on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has found a target unlike anything it has studied before — bedrock with surprisingly high levels of silica. Silica is a rock-forming compound containing silicon and oxygen, commonly found on Earth as quartz.
…… In fact, the Curiosity team decided to back up the rover 46 meters (151 feet) from the geological contact zone to investigate the high-silica target dubbed “Elk.” The decision was made after they analyzed data from two instruments, the laser-firing Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), which show elevated amounts of silicon and hydrogen, respectively. High levels of silica in the rock could indicate ideal conditions for preserving ancient organic material, if present, so the science team wants to take a closer look.
…… “We found an outcrop named Missoula [not shown in the above photo] where the two rock types came together, but it was quite small and close to the ground. We used the robotic arm to capture a dog’s-eye view with the MAHLI camera, getting our nose right in there,” said Ashwin Vasavada, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. MAHLI is short for Mars Hand Lens Imager.
…… The rover had moved on before the Elk data were analyzed, so a U-turn was required to obtain more data. Upon its return, the rover was able to study a similar target, “Lamoose,” up close with the MAHLI camera and the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached the base of Mount Sharp last year after fruitfully investigating outcrops closer to its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main mission objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount Sharp.
[Credits]: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency. Russia’s space agency provided Curiosity’s DAN instrument. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington …
CHECK OUT ANOTHER GREAT NEW BEDROCK FIND ON THE NEXT PAGE! …
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