Posted on 11/02/2012 10:35:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Nasa's Curiosity rover has found soil on Mars to be similar to Hawaii's after sifting and scanning its first sample on the Red Planet.
The robot's CheMin instrument shook out fine particles of soil and fired X-rays at them to determine their composition.
These sandy samples should give clues about Mars' recent geological history.
As had been theorised, much of the sample is made of weathered "basaltic" materials of volcanic origin, like that seen on the islands of Hawaii.
The sample seems to contain dust carried from afar by Mars' global-scale storms, as well as coarser sand of more local provenance.
The £2.6bn mission put Curiosity on the floor of Gale Crater, a huge depression on Mars' equator, on 6 August.
The team says the sample contains "significant amounts" of the minerals feldspar, olivine and pyroxene.
"So far, the materials Curiosity has analysed are consistent with our initial ideas of the deposits in Gale Crater, recording a transition through time from a wet to dry environment," said David Bish, co-investigator on the CheMin experiment.
In the weeks since its arrival on Mars, the rover has already put its ChemCam and APXS instruments to work examining larger rocks, including a never-before-seen specimen reported earlier in October.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Maybe they should keep digging.. They might find 0bama’s REAL birth certificate.
Ping
Check this out SC.
If there is any water on Mars (other than at teh poles) then it is at the bottom of the Valles Marinaris.
Following the raw images day by day, I feel they are not entirely forthcoming. In particular, there have been some recent closeups of the robotic arm turret, which is sort of a monstrous swiss army knife. It has a number of wire bundles bound by “ties” which seem to resemble the stray piece they found on the ground a week or so ago. I have to guess they have an idea that it fell off of this thing, and they are looking for the spot it came from. If they mentioned anything about this, I didn’t see it.
Soil like Hawaii, eh? Does Sheriff Joe know about this?
New gig for Obama in ‘13......
Selling Mars road maps to Japanese tourists.
Has Curiosity found a sign that says “Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital” yet?
not our solar system
lol
FYI, the last five pictures are screen shots of the same HiRise image, PSP_009342_1725_RED, at different magnifications, so any extra-solar lighting should be evident in all of them. ( The last picture is just the previous one rotated to show that it produces the illusion of an erect slab. )
AHA! I KNEW it was true!
Thanks dr_lew.
Thanks gleeaikin for the ping, thanks BenLurkin for the topic.
Burke archaeologist challenges Smithsonian over Kennewick Man
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2954019/posts?page=15#15
No Sign of Methane on Mars; Abstract Thought Melts Political Convictions
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2954122/posts
darn...was hoping for a monolith
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