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NASA will reveal new discovery made by curiosity


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15 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Why?
"Can ka-boom cause pshhh?"

Well for one thing, Im not aware of any Earth-ejecta being found on other planets.

Ejecta arriving here, only have to survive reentry, which is FAR easier than surviving hypersonic speed at sea level.

As for how the ejecta gets to space, not all planets have our atmosphere.

 

Couple those with the very, very different starting conditions and I have no problem holding both ideas at once.

 

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https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finds-ancient-organic-material-mysterious-methane-on-mars

41 minutes ago, cubinator said:

They found a bunch of methane.

No, they found that the methane was seasonally variable.

4 hours ago, tater said:

Wonder if it will be more on seasonal methane.

Yes, this seems to be it.

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even if it isnt life its a huge boost because its something...it also means that if there was life it didnt starve which could mean complex life such as fish (im noting fish as complex as comparing it to microbial life) 

Edited by kerbinorbiter
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6 minutes ago, kerbinorbiter said:

even if it isnt life its a huge boost because its something...it also means that if there was life it didnt starve which could mean complex life such as fish (im noting fish as complex as comparing it to microbial life) 

Don't get ahead of yourself, I'd think about sponges first.

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17 minutes ago, kerbinorbiter said:

even if it isnt life its a huge boost because its something...it also means that if there was life it didnt starve which could mean complex life such as fish (im noting fish as complex as comparing it to microbial life) 

Definitely not fish. They would probably leave fossils all over the place.

Even microbes would be a huge discovery.

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39 minutes ago, Wjolcz said:

Even microbes would be a huge discovery.

Why doesn't curiosity have a microscope?  

Quote

Mars 2020 will have a microscope

Oh subcontractors I forgot

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1 hour ago, Wjolcz said:

Even microbes would be a huge discovery.

That would be a seriously badass microbe, to survive through billions of years of near-vacuum, radiation, cryogenic temperatures and toxic soil.

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1 hour ago, Wjolcz said:

Definitely not fish. They would probably leave fossils all over the place.

Even microbes would be a huge discovery.

My guess if they find anything it would be the Martian version of Paramecium or Amoeba's.

Still that would be an astounding find!

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1 hour ago, GDJ said:

My guess if they find anything it would be the Martian version of Paramecium or Amoeba's.

I doubt it would be THAT complex. More like progenote or some sort of archaea at best.

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Every 3 billion years somebody tries to run ISRU on Mars and to produce some methane to return home.

P.S.

Quote

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life

Should be "Curiosity has found new evidence of ancient Sabatier plant activity."

Edited by kerbiloid
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8 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finds-ancient-organic-material-mysterious-methane-on-mars

No, they found that the methane was seasonally variable.

Yes, this seems to be it.

Explains why they wanted the 2020 rover so badly. Curiosity hasn't enough armament up it sleeves to answer all the curiosity.

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  • 8 months later...

NASA has released a 360° immersive video of Curiositys last drill site on Vera Rubin Ridge.

Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Quote

After exploring Mars' Vera Rubin Ridge for more than a year, NASA's Curiosity rover recently moved on. But a new 360-video lets the public visit Curiosity's final drill site on the ridge, an area nicknamed "Rock Hall." The video was created from a panorama taken by the rover on Dec. 19. It includes images of its next destination - an area the team has been calling the "clay-bearing unit" and recently named "Glen Torridon" - and the floor of Gale Crater, home to Mount Sharp, the geological feature the rover has been climbing since 2014.

Even though the rover has left the ridge, Curiosity's team is still piecing together the story of its formation. While there have been a number of clues so far, none fully explains why the ridge has resisted erosion compared with the bedrock around it. But the rover's investigation did find that the rocks of the ridge formed as sediment settled in an ancient lake, similar to rock layers below the ridge.

"We've had our fair share of surprises," said Curiosity science team member Abigail Fraeman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We're leaving with a different perspective of the ridge than what we had before."

A NASA orbiter studying the ridge had previously identified a strong signal from hematite, an iron-rich mineral that often forms in water. Curiosity confirmed the presence of hematite, along with other signs of ancient water, like crystals. These signs appeared in patches, leading the team to suspect that over time groundwater affected certain parts of the ridge differently than others. Another discovery was that the hematite signatures Curiosity mapped didn't always match the view from space.

"The whole traverse is helping us understand all the factors that influence how our orbiters see Mars," Fraeman said. "Looking up close with a rover allowed us to find a lot more of these hematite signatures. It shows how orbiter and rover science complement one another."

The ridge has also served as the backdrop to a roller-coaster year: Curiosity's drill returned to action, only to be stymied by surprisingly hard rocks. Nevertheless, the team managed to get samples from the three major rock types of the ridge. To get around a memory issue, engineers also swapped the rover's computers (the spacecraft was designed with two so that it can continue operations if one experiences a glitch). While the issue is still being diagnosed, operations have continued with little impact on the mission.

The rover's new home, Glen Torridon, is in a trough between Vera Rubin Ridge and the rest of the mountain. This region had been called the clay-bearing unit because orbiter data show that the rocks there contain phyllosilicates - clay minerals that form in water and that could tell scientists more about the ancient lakes that were present in Gale Crater off and on throughout its early history.

"In addition to indicating a previously wet environment, clay minerals are known to trap and preserve organic molecules," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL. "That makes this area especially promising, and the team is already surveying the area for its next drill site."

Curiosity has found both clay minerals and organic molecules in many of the rocks it has drilled since landing in 2012. Organic molecules are the chemical building blocks of life. If both water and organic molecules were present when the rocks formed, the clay-bearing unit may be another example of a habitable environment on ancient Mars - a place capable of supporting life, if it ever existed.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7330

 

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