This year has been a good one for a NASA surface Mars robot that has taken some amazing photos of the Red Planet over the past 12 months.
Since August 2012, the Curiosity rover has made its way across the Martian surface, receiving new environmental information. Where are the streams of water? Was life here? And what happened in the crater of Gail and Mount Eolid? Now that the rover is in the bottom of the mountain, he took some spectacular shots of dunes, rocks, and even a meteorite. Here are the most remarkable shots.
Dunes
Grab your 3D glasses and enjoy this 13-foot Martian dune! The Namib Dune has become part of the study of active sand dunes (they quickly migrate every year). Namib is part of the Bagnold Dunes region, which travels one meter per year.
“Like on Earth, on the leeward side, sand dunes have a steep slope called a sliding edge,” NASA said in a statement. - “The sand grains blow from the windward side, creating mounds, which then, like an avalanche, fall down. Then the process repeats. ”
Sand Self
This is another view of the Bagnold Dune region made by the rover in front. This is not just a cool shot. It allows NASA engineers to monitor the status of the device. For example, the first cause for concern was how quickly the wheels of the rover were torn down. NASA began driving on the ugly land, which slowed down the rate of wear.
The picture was taken on January 19 in the 1228th working day of the apparatus.
Hillocks
The Martian is an interesting thing to learn, as it tells a lot of useful information about the geological history of the planet. Here you may notice some protrusions on the sandstone inside the geological block of Murray. For some reason, these formations seem to have stopped erosion. “The place is located in the lower zone of Mount Sharp where the mudstones from the Murray block (visible in the lower right corner) are displayed near the overlying Stimson block,” NASA said in a statement. - “The exact line of contact of the two blocks is covered with sand brought by the wind. Most of the other parts of the Stimson block showed no nodules resistant to erosion. ”
Rocks
This magnificent panorama (including the apparatus shadow on the right) shows the “Naukluft Plateau” at the bottom of the Sharpe Mountain. Curiosity made a series of images on April 4, so that geologists managed to deal with the whole region (history of rocks).
“From the moment of landing, the rover went through terrain with the presence of aqueous sedimentary rocks (argillites and aleurolites, as well as early stages), some of which contained minerals such as clay, indicating the ancient presence of water,” says NASA. “But on the new plateau, the rover turned out to be in a completely different geology. The sandstone here represents thick layers of sand brought by the wind, suggesting that these deposits were formed in a more dry age. ”
Ripples and dust
Even the ripples on Mars are different. The largest ripples in the image are 10 feet apart. On Earth, you will not see this. Although small yet resemble ours. This image was taken in December 2015 at the Bagnold dune deposit. The pictures were immediately sent to Earth for publication, but sometimes it takes months to download to get a better look.
“The frames were made early in the morning with a camera facing the Sun,” NASA writes. “This mosaic image has been processed to make the ripples more visible. The sand is very dark due to the morning shadows and the inner darkness of the minerals that dominate it. ” Autonomous Pi-Pi
Bye laz
The rocket shooting of the warriors looks a little frightening on Earth, it was used peacefully on Mars. Rover selects targets for laser analysis, using the program embedded in the software. So, if the device was in the right place, it can get to work, while scientists are trying to navigate. On the left frame you see the target before the procedure, and on the right - the result.
“The ChemCam laser spectrometer erases a grid of nine points on a stone selected in accordance with the specified criteria. In this case, it was necessary to find a bright naked stone, not dark rocks. Within 30 minutes after Navcam took the image, the laser completed the task for the target area. ”
Rocky Beauty
The fact that at first glance looks like a random assortment of Murray Buttes hills, in fact, says a lot about the long history of ancient Mars. While wind erosion dominates on the planet, the image shows important processes for the past. The device also found evidence of water erosion in the higher regions of Mount Sharp.
“These are the remains of an ancient sandstone created by wind-precipitated sand after the formation of the lower Sharp mountain. Oblique layering indicates that sandstone was caused by the wind of a migratory dune. ”
Vision of the Future
The picture was taken at the end of 2016, showing the view from the rover, including where it goes further. Orange is the bottom of Mount Sharpe. Above it is a layer of hematite, even higher is clay (it is difficult to see here). Rounded hills are a sulphate block where Curiosity plans to go. Further away are the high slopes of the mountain. Rover will be able to consider them, but will not come close. “The variety of colors hints at the difference in the composition of the mountain. Violet has already been noticed in other rocks in which hematite has been identified. This season, the winds do not apply a lot of sand, and the stones are relatively free of dust (which can hide color). ”
Alien Visits
You have no idea how cool it is! A man-made rover plows a foreign planet and stumbles upon an alien object. You see a nickel-iron meteorite the size of a golf ball. He was called the “stone egg”. “This is a general class of cosmic stones, more than once discovered on Earth. But on Mars, we found this for the first time. He was investigated using a laser spectrometer. ”
Path through history
This is a Curiosity road through November 2016. On the left, snapshots of drilled holes, where the rover has extracted 15 samples of rock powder. This helps to better understand the history of Mars, which is used for future missions. In the 2030s, NASA hopes to send a human group and reconnaissance vehicles. The task also includes the return to Earth and the delivery of samples.
