rocks on mars – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

NASA Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.

The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill. (more…)

The Flowing Sands of Mars

By Guest PostMay 13, 2012ScienceAntarctica, caltech, craters, digital terrain model, doug mccuistion, dtm, earth, flowing sands, geological processes, gullies, high speed winds, hirise camera, jean philippe avouac, mars, martian equator, martian landscape, martian surface, mro, NASA, nathan bridges, nili patera, red planet, rocks on mars, sand dunes, sarah mattson, valleys

Sand dunes on Mars move not unlike those on Earth, despite a much thinner atmosphere and weaker winds, as revealed by images taken with the UA-led HiRISE camera.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, has revealed that movement in sand dune fields on the Red Planet occurs on a surprisingly large scale, about the same as in dune fields on Earth.

This is unexpected because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth is only about 1 percent as dense, and its high-speed winds are less frequent and weaker than Earth’s.

For years, researchers debated whether or not sand dunes observed on Mars were mostly fossil features related to past climate, rather than currently active. In the past two years, researchers using images from MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera have detected and reported sand movement. (more…)

Tag Archives: rocks on mars

NASA Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample

The Flowing Sands of Mars