Clay found in Mars’ Mount Sharp
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie on May 12, 2019. To the lower-left of the rover are its two recent drill holes, at targets called "Aberlady" and "Kilmarie."Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Anthony Caggiano
The highest concentrations of clay in Mars’ lower Mount Sharp area to date have been found, confirming water was present in this area.
Samples collected by NASA's Curiosity rover – which has been climbing the mountain since 2014 – at rock targets named Aberlady and Kilmarie.
Both drill targets appear in a selfie taken by the rover on May 12, 2019.
A NASA report stated, ‘Curiosity is exploring Mount Sharp to see if it had the conditions to support life billions of years ago.’
‘The rover's mineralogy instrument, called CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy), provided the first analyses of rock samples drilled in the clay-bearing unit. CheMin also found very little hematite, an iron oxide mineral that was abundant just to the north, on Vera Rubin Ridge.’
The report stated the meaning of these findings is unclear, but does offer proof there once was a ‘significant’ amount of water in Gale Crater.
‘It's likely that the rocks in the area formed as layers of mud in ancient lakes — something Curiosity also found lower on Mount Sharp. Water interacted with sediment over time, leaving an abundance of clay in the rocks there.’
On top of this, the rover’s black-and-white Navigation Cameras (Navcams) took photos in early May of drifting clouds, which are thought to the water-ice clouds about 31km above the surface.
‘The mission's team has been trying to coordinate cloud observations with NASA's InSight lander, located about 600km away, which recently took its own cloud images. Capturing the same clouds from two vantage points can help scientists calculate their altitude,’ NASA reported on its website.
According to NASA, Mount Sharp rises about 5km from the base of Gale Crater. Curiosity's scientists want to visit these places to learn more about the history of water on the mountain, which slowly dried up as the climate changed.
‘Understanding how these changes occurred on Mount Sharp may provide new insights into why water - one of the most critical resources for life - disappeared from Mars billions of years ago.
‘NASA plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024 as a step toward human exploration of Mars. The technologies that will be developed for the Moon will make future robotic and human missions to Mars possible.’
