The Curiosity rover has sent back beautiful images of layered mountains on Mars. NASA releases new photos from the surface of Mars High-resolution images of Mars from the rover

This year has been a good year for NASA's Martian surface robot, which has taken some stunning photos of the Red Planet over the past 12 months.

Since August 2012, the Curiosity rover has been making its way across the Martian surface, gaining new information about environment. Where are the streams of water? Was there life here? And what happened in Gale Crater and Mount Aeolis? Now that the rover is in the lower mountain, it has captured some spectacular shots of dunes, rocks, and even a meteorite. Here are the most remarkable shots.

Dunes

Grab your 3D glasses and enjoy this 13ft Martian dune! The Namib Dune has become part of the study of active sand dunes (they migrate rapidly every year). The Namib is part of the Bagnold Dunes region, which move one meter a year.

"Like on Earth, downwind, sand dunes have a steep slope called a sliding edge," NASA said in a statement. “Sand grains blow from the windward side, creating mounds, which then, like an avalanche, fall down. Then the process is repeated."

sandy selfie

This is another view of the Bagnold Dune region taken by the rover from the front. It's not just a cool shot. It allows NASA engineers to monitor the state of the device. For example, the first cause for concern was how quickly the wheels of the rover wore out. NASA started driving on nasty ground, which slowed down the wear rate.

bumps

The Martian rock is an interesting thing to study, as it tells a lot of useful information about the geological history of the planet. Here you can see some sandstone outcroppings inside the Murray Geological Block. For some reason, these formations seem to have stopped the erosion.

"The site is located in the lower area of Mount Sharp, where mudstones from the Murray Block (visible in the lower right corner) are exposed adjacent to the overlying Stimson Block," NASA said in a statement. “The exact line of contact between the two blocks is covered with windblown sand. Most of the other parts of the Stimson Block did not show the presence of erosion-resistant nodules."

rocks

This magnificent panorama (including the shadow of the apparatus on the right) shows the Naukluft Plateau at the bottom of Mount Sharp. Curiosity took a series of images on April 4, so that geologists were able to understand the entire region (rock history).

“Since landing, the rover has passed through areas with the presence of water sedimentary rocks (argillites and siltstones, as well as accumulations on early stages), some of which contained minerals such as clay, evidence of the ancient presence of water,” says NASA. “But on the new plateau, the rover found itself in a completely different geology. The sandstone here represents thick layers of windblown sand, suggesting that these deposits formed in a drier era.”

Ripples and dust

Even the ripples on Mars are different. The largest ripples in the image are 10 feet apart. You won't see this on Earth. Although the small ones still resemble ours. This image was taken in December 2015 at the Bagnold dune field. The images were immediately sent to Earth for publication, but sometimes it takes months to upload to get a better look.

“The footage was taken in the early 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 because of the morning shadows and the inner darkness of the minerals that dominate its composition.”

Autonomous Piu Piu

Bye laz
Black robot gunfire looks a little intimidating on Earth, it has been used peacefully on Mars. The rover selects targets for laser analysis using a software program. So, if the device is in the right place, it can get to work while scientists try to orient themselves. On the left frame you see the goal before the procedure, and on the right - the result.

“The ChemCam laser spectrometer erases a grid of nine points on a stone selected according to specified criteria. In this case, it was necessary to find a bright exposed stone, and not dark rocks. Within 30 minutes after the Navcam received the image, the laser completed the task on the target area.

rocky beauty

What at first glance looks like a random assortment of Murray Buttes hill rocks actually says a lot about the long history of ancient Mars. While the planet is dominated by wind erosion, the image shows important processes for the past. The craft also found evidence of water erosion in the upper regions of Mount Sharp.

“These are the remains of ancient sandstone created by wind-set sand after the formation of Lower Sharp Mountain. The cross bedding indicates that the sandstone was blown by a migrating dune."

Vision of the future

The picture was taken in late 2016, showing the view from the rover, including where it is heading next. The orange rock is the lower part of Mount Sharp. Above it is a layer of hematite, even higher is clay (hard to see here). The rounded hills are a block of sulfate where Curiosity plans to head. Farther away are the high slopes of the mountain. The rover will be able to see them, but will not drive 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 found. This season the winds don't blow much sand and the rocks are relatively free of dust (which can obscure the color)."

alien visits

You can't even imagine how cool it is! A man-made rover surfs an alien planet and stumbles upon an alien object. You see a nickel-iron meteorite about the size of a golf ball. It was called "stone egg". "This general class space stones, more than once discovered on Earth. But on Mars, we found this for the first time. It was examined using a laser spectrometer."

Path through history

This is the path Curiosity has taken until November 2016. On the left are images of the drilled holes where the rover extracted 15 samples of the rocky 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 team and reconnaissance vehicles. The mission also includes the return to Earth and the delivery of samples.

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Red Planet Mystery

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Enthusiasts of Mars exploration were alarmed by the new discovery of the rover: on one of the rocks examined, there was an almost perfect ball resembling a golf or ping-pong ball. Even not only its shape is surprising, but also its location, as if someone had put it on a flat stone.

The ball was found in the shooting of color mast cameras on the 746th Sol - Martian day - expedition. It is now Sol 760 there, and Curiosity has moved about 150 meters away from the location of the ball. No return is expected, so these footage is the only thing we have left.

But the find does not seem sensational, because it is clearly visible that this is a stone, and not any other material.

Round-shaped rocks on Mars, like on Earth, are not something unique. For example, Curiosity has already found rounded river pebbles.

This find may be something more interesting, for example, lapille, a volcanic rock that is formed when liquid lava is ejected during an explosion, and small drops solidify in flight in a spherical or close to it shape.

Of course, the volcanic eruption, if it ever happened, did not happen today. If you look closely, you can see a similar ball sprinkled with sand.

And 30 meters away, there was a whole deposit of spherical and drop-shaped stones.

It remains only to understand how the "golf ball" could move a few tens of meters. I think here, as in many other cases, the forces of heaven have worked. Mars is regularly bombarded by meteors, and it took millions of years for an exact fall. The rover regularly encounters small craters a meter or two in diameter, i.e. the bombardment continues. And its traces, in the form of broken rock layers, are found everywhere.

The balls also came across the Opportunity rover. True, they were smaller in size, for which they received the name "blueberries" (blueberries).

It was hematite - iron-containing nodules that formed in the aquatic environment.

Another find, called newberries, has not yet found its explanation.

If Curiosity comes across something like this, then there is a chance that the mystery of the origin of the "new berries" will be solved. Opportunity has very few research instruments left, and Curiosity's arsenal is vastly superior. Let's see.

Mars' layered geologic past is revealed in stunning detail in new color images sent by NASA's Curiosity rover on September 8, 2016, which is currently surveying the Murray Buttes Hills in the lower region of Mount Sharp. Photos can compete with views of US national parks. The team of scientists plans to assemble several large, colorful mosaics from a large number of images taken in one place on Mars.

The multilevel geological past of the Red Planet is revealed remarkably in detailed photos taken by the rover on September 8.

"The Curiosity science team was excited to tour the 'American desert' on Mars," said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasawada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In the transmitted images, you can see the Martian hills and layered mountains, which are gradually getting rid of the remnants of ancient sandstone.

Exploring these hills at a close distance allowed us to learn more about ancient sand dunes that were buried, chemically altered by groundwater, resurfaced from underground, and then collapsed to make the landscape we see today, Vasavada said.

The new images illustrate Curiosity's final stop in the Murray Buttes Hills, where the rover has been for just under a month. On September 9 of this year, the rover began its last drilling campaign. Once this drilling is completed, Curiosity will continue south and up Mount Sharp, leaving these spectacular structures behind. Curiosity landed near Mount Sharp in 2012 and reached its base in 2014 after successfully confirming the existence of microbes in Martian lakes. The layers that form the base of Mount Sharp have accumulated from the deposits of ancient lakes that existed billions of years ago.

On Mount Sharp, Curiosity investigates how and when the positive climate of Mars gave way to dry and uninhabitable conditions.

Red Planet Mystery

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