Curiosity’s five biggest discoveries after ten years of mission on Mars – NIUS – NIUS

This August 6 marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival on Mars of the robotic vehicle ‘Curiosity’ The initial objective was for the rover to work for two years but it has been on a mission for ten years The rover’s instruments have confirmed the presence of water in the past of Mars and indications that it could once harbor lifeThis August 6 marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival on Mars of the robotic vehicle ‘Curiosity’, with the mission of testing past environments conducive to life on the surface of the red planet.’Curiosity ‘ took off aboard an Atlas 5 rocket on November 26, 2011 and traveled through space for nine months, traveling 482 million kilometers. The successful arrival of the rover was a milestone in technology, condensed in seven minutes of vertiginous descent from orbit, in which it was reducing speed with a combination of parachutes, retrorockets and arrival at the surface assisted by tethers. The initial objective was for the rover to work at spent two years conducting a geological expedition to Mount Sharp, a sedimentary rise in the middle of Gale Crater, located just south of the Martian equator. After touring the crater, Curiosity is currently exploring the slopes of the mount with its cameras and sample collection and chemical analysis instruments. This scenario was chosen because of the age of the crater, between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years, the same period in that the Earth and the rest of the planets of the Solar System were frequently bombarded by meteorites. It is also the time when Mars was able to host an atmosphere capable of raising the temperature and allowing the presence of liquid water on the surface. The five greatest discoveries of Curiosity Famous for its ‘selfies’, the work of this vehicle – which has traveled more of 28.5 kilometres– has allowed us to know that Mars had an atmosphere in its youth, there are more detailed data on the radiation on the planet–for future manned missions–, it has found evidence of the existence of liquid water in the past and variable emissions of methane and organic compounds. However, it has found no evidence of life on the Red Planet. Detecting organic compounds on Mars: One of the rover’s instruments detected organic molecules in rock samples collected from Gale Crater on Mars. Organic molecules (those containing carbon) could be used as building blocks and “food” for life. Its presence on Mars suggests that the planet may once have supported life, if it ever was. While the isotopes in carbon dioxide and methane measured during some sample analyzes might be consistent with ancient biological activity producing the observed organic compounds, it is important that there are non-life-based explanations as well; For example, this isotopic signal could be the result of an interaction between ultraviolet light from the Sun and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars, producing organic compounds that fall to the surface and that does not require life. Methane variability: Using Curiosity’s SAM tunable laser spectrometer, developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California, scientists have detected fluctuations in the abundance of methane in the near-surface atmosphere where the rover collects samples. On Earth, most of the methane in the atmosphere comes from life processes and varies as a result of changes in biological processes, but it is not known if this is the case on Mars. Curiosity is not equipped to determine whether or not the methane it has detected originates from biological processes, but the myriad of Red Planet missions continue to piece together the tantalizing puzzle. Rock formation and age of exposure in Gale Crater: The Curiosity had been on Mars for just over a year when, using the SAM instrument, scientists determined for the first time both the formation age and the exposure age of a rock on the surface of another planet. The rocks around the rim of Gale Crater formed about 4 billion years ago and were later transported as sediment into Yellowknife Bay. From there, weathering and erosion slowly broke it down and exposed the rocks to surface radiation about 70 million years ago. In addition to providing information about the erosion rates of Mars, knowing how long a sample was exposed allows scientists to consider possible radiation-induced changes in organic compounds that could affect the ability to identify potential biosignatures. Digging deeper into the history of water on Mars: Curiosity has also shed light on Mars’ wetter past and how the planet has dried up. Water is vitally important to life as we know it. The rover has found hints that Mars had a wet past. Part of that evidence is the presence of jarosite, a reddish-yellow mineral that only forms in aqueous environments. The Curiosity (APXS) instrument found jarosite hundreds of millions of years younger than expected. This finding suggests that even as much of the Martian surface was drying out, some liquid water remained below the surface in the Gale Crater environment, extending the period of habitability of any Martian microbes that might have existed. Furthermore, analyzes performed by the SAM instrument provided information on the loss of Mars’ atmosphere that led to its long-term evolution from the initial warm and humid state to the current cold and arid state. Water, H2O, contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Hydrogen can be exchanged for a heavier form of itself, called deuterium. By measuring the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen in its samples, Curiosity discovered evidence of a history of hydrogen escape and water loss on Mars. Biologically Useful Nitrogen: On Earth, nitrogen is an essential ingredient in the recipe for life, but not just any nitrogen will do. For most biological processes to make use of it, the nitrogen atoms must first be “fixed”: freed from their strong tendency to interact only with themselves. Curiosity detected fixed nitrogen in the form of nitrate in rock samples it analyzed in 2015. The finding indicated that biologically and chemically usable nitrogen was present on Mars 3.5 billion years ago. NASA points out that none of the findings from the rover’s SAM instrument or Curiosity’s other instruments can offer positive proof of past life on Mars. , but more importantly, these findings do not rule it out. Earlier this year, NASA extended Curiosity’s mission to at least 2025, allowing the rover and its SAM mobile chemistry lab to stay focused on the tantalizing question of Mars habitability.