Three and a half billion years ago Mars was a completely dissimilar place . Water was flowing , the atmosphere was thickset , and maybe some canonical forms of life had evolved . oddment ’s latest findings provide more evidence for flowing water , but create new doubt about the Red Planet .
The rocks analyse by Curiosity in the last seven months have much high concentration of silica than any other terrain visited by the rover since its reaching in 2012 . Silica , which is a chemical made of silicon and oxygen , make up 90 percent of the report of some of those rocks .
" These high-pitched - silicon oxide constitution are a puzzle . you could boost the concentration of silica either by leaching away other ingredients while leaving the silica behind , or by bringing in silica from somewhere else , " say Albert Yen , a Curiosity skill team member , in astatement . " Either of those processes demand piss . If we can determine which happened , we ’ll learn more about other conditions in those ancient loaded environs . "
If the descent of the silica is sedimentary , water must have flowed abundantly on Mars . The other choice is that it formed through leaching , a type of rock weathering due to acidic piss . While many minerals in rock would break up , silica would not be affected by the acidic urine . NASA ’s rover Spirit previously break ghost of sulfuric and hydrochloric acidity , which could favor the leaching theory , but the team is still considering both scenarios until more evidence is find .
Another puzzling discovery is the presence oftridymite , a very rare silica ( at least on Earth ) formed by volcanoes . research worker are curious about a likely magmatic past times on Mars , but they are also try if there are other means for this mineral to form .
Curiosity is currently climbingMount Sharp , a feature of speech within Gale crater where it landed 40 month ago . Mount Sharp formed because surrounded terrain eroded away , so as Curiosity climb up higher and high-pitched , it play younger and younger terrain . This will give us an indication of how Mars went from a wet to arid environs .
" What we ’re date on Mount Sharp is dramatically unlike from what we saw in the first two class of the mission , " said Curiosity projection scientist Ashwin Vasavada .
" There ’s so much variability within relatively unforesightful distances . The silica is one indicant of how the chemistry switch . It ’s such a multifaceted and funny discovery , we ’re going to take a while figuring it out . "
