Mars Rover/Mission Thread: Following Our Curiosity

[Sharpshooter]

Mars Rover Makes Huge New Discovery

NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface

(Click on picture to enlarge)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.

Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow.

"From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."

The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate. The imagery shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, sitting uphill of the new finds.

The rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the rim, where a channel named Peace Vallis feeds into the alluvial fan. The abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.

The discovery comes from examining two outcrops, called "Hottah" and "Link," with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's mast camera during the first 40 days after landing. Those observations followed up on earlier hints from another outcrop, which was exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, touched down.

"Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded.

"The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow," said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

The science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.

The slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life.

"A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," said Grotzinger. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120927.html

[Buddhas Hand]

We have thoughs other than fear and hunger pains .

[Sharpshooter]

[Red Light Racicot]

Incredible.

[VICanucksfan5551]

That's so cool. I think it's case closed on there being water on Mars in the past at this point. If there's evidence of life on Mars, it's bound to be in a stream region like that.

[deized_kanuck604]

epic find. congrats, im stoked to be alive to see this all come together. how effin cool is this sh!t

[Sharpshooter]

That's so cool. I think it's case closed on there being water on Mars in the past at this point. If there's evidence of life on Mars, it's bound to be in a stream region like that.

[UMB]

WOW Astronomy is one of the things that just absolutely fascinates me. Water on Mars is a huge breakthrough. It could tell us if there was life on Mars at any point and it could cave the way to other things. A huge dream of mine, (though unlikely to be achieved as I'm near-sighted and I heard you have to have 20-20 vision to go on space exploration) is to go to Mars one day.

[MoneypuckOverlord]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-57337039-239/earth-like-planet-found-in-distant-suns-habitable-zone/

very interesting stuff. but 600 light years away

[VICanucksfan5551]

The exciting thing, is that one would assume that finding life in a river bed or somewhere that water flowed would make it a no-brainer to look for evidence of life....BUT, NASA scientists are even more excited about the layers at the base of Mt. Sharp even with the knowledge of this river bed.....which makes me excited because they seem to have had their confidence boosted even moreso after coming across the direct evidence of flowing water on Mars.

I can't wait for them to actually get there and start analyzing with MAHLI, the close up hi-res colour camera, and its other lab instruments.

I'm waiting for the day they announce that they believe that they've found evidence of current or past life on Mars. What an absolutely mind-blowing day that'll be.

[Sharpshooter]

Yeah, I'd imagine there'd be a much wider range of geological strata available to sample at the final destination. If they do find evidence of life, it'd undoubtedly be one of the biggest discoveries in human history. Either possibility of Martian life sharing a common origin with its brethren on Earth or emerging independently is mindblowing.

[Buddhas Hand]

I couldn't think of a bigger discovery tbh.

And IF it developed separately.....then wow at those implications of the capability of the universe supporting life, let alone this solar system.....but if we share the same DNA, then just as much wow as well, but in another way, in answering the age old question about how life started on earth.....although, it'd be a bit unsatisfying because it would simply shift the question to Mars, from Earth...but still would be an amazing piece of knowledge for us to absorb.

Ugh, I hate that I love this stuff so much and I my need for answers naow.

[Buddhas Hand]

Not so moist Mars: Clays may come from lava, not lakes

• 18:00 09 September 2012 by Lisa Grossman

Hunting for Martians may be a tougher task than predicted. Clays, long thought to be a sure sign of a warmer and wetter past on the Red Planet, could merely signal earlier volcanic activity – which would have made some regions on Mars less favourable for life.

Clay layers found across Mars suggest that during the Noachian period, from about 4.2 billion to 3.5 billion years ago, the planet was warm enough to host liquid water – necessary for life as we know it.

Scientists thought Mars clays could have formed in one of two ways: through soil interacting with standing water on the surface, or from water bubbling up from below via hydrothermal vents.

"Both of those would have created habitats that would have supported microbes," says study co-author Bethany Ehlmann of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "On Earth, microbes would have been thriving away, enjoying themselves."

Thick history

But a new analysis of Martian meteorites hints that some clays may not have formed the way we think.

Alain Meunier of the University of Poitiers in France has found that some Mars minerals from the Noachian period are a good chemical match to clays at the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia, which formed from cooling of water-rich lava.

What's more, these ancient Martian clays can be up to hundreds of metres thick, which is more likely to be associated with lava flows than soil interacting with water.

"Such a result would imply that early Mars may not have been as habitable as previously thought at the time when Earth's life was taking hold," wrote Brian Hynek of the University of Colorado in Boulder, who was not involved in the new work, in an accompanying commentary.

Tastes of lava

One way to confirm where Mars clays came from is to check the soil texture with a high-resolution microscope.

"Under each of those scenarios, there are particular characteristics of texture," Ehlmann says.

NASA's Curiosity rover has spent about a month in Gale Crater near the Martian equator, which holds a wealth of clay minerals. Curiosity has an onboard microscope, but it's not quite good enough to make the distinction.

Another option would be to do chemical analyses and look for certain rare-earth elements. But that would require a mission capable of returning pristine samples to Earth.

Still, Ehlmann is not worried about Curiosity's chances of finding clays made by liquid water. Gale Crater's morphology – the fact that "it was a big deep hole in the ground" – fits better with the theory that it was a lake, not a volcano.

"I think Gale is a different flavour of Mars," Ehlmann says. "If we wanted to test out this hypothesis, we'd head elsewhere."

[Sharpshooter]

While this is new evidence of water flowing on mars ,it is not the first , the mars reconnaissance orbiter had taken images of past water flows on mars a year ago

I believe we are placing limits on the existence of life apart from us in the universe when we presume it is similiar to life as we know it .

what if other life is not carbon based ?

you are right , this is the question that fascinates me the most , and the one i would like to see an answer in the affirmative before i die

[Buddhas Hand]

In a way you're right, however, this is the first direct evidence of flowing water, confirming the previous evidence as you kindly put up about previous 'water flow' imaging from space. The other evidence was open to possibly other explanations like magma flow from volcanoes, even if that was a remote chance with some of the images.

Confirmation is key, and that's the what we received, and that's the really awesome part. There's no doubt now.

[VICanucksfan5551]

I couldn't think of a bigger discovery tbh.

And IF it developed separately.....then wow at those implications of the capability of the universe supporting life, let alone this solar system.....but if we share the same DNA, then just as much wow as well, but in another way, in answering the age old question about how life started on earth.....although, it'd be a bit unsatisfying because it would simply shift the question to Mars, from Earth...but still would be an amazing piece of knowledge for us to absorb.

Ugh, I hate that I love this stuff so much and I my need for answers naow.

[Hobble]

Wonder how the various religions will adapt if we discover life on another planet.

[Buddhas Hand]

Wonder how the various religions will adapt if we discover life on another planet.

[Sharpshooter]

Well, Einstein's discoveries of relativity and mass and energy being interchangeable would be at least on the same level, IMO.

Personally, I'd find the possibility of hypothetical life on Mars having an independent origin to be the more exciting possiblity. If life can arise independently at least twice in the same solar system, what does that say about its prevalence in the rest of the universe? That being said, finding out that our lineage began on another planet would be amazing in its own right.

[Sharpshooter]

Wonder how the various religions will adapt if we discover life on another planet.