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NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
Scientists say that a "Martian flower," seen here in an image from the Curiosity rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, is a 2-millimeter-wide grain or pebble that's embedded in the surrounding rock. Another, darker-colored mineral grain can be seen above and to the left.
The scientists behind NASA's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover mission on Mars on Tuesday explained the nature of a tiny, gleaming "flower" embedded in Red Planet rock, and revealed where they'll be using the SUV-sized robot's drill for the first time.
Both those developments point to the same happy discovery: The place where the rover is working was almost certainly formed through the action of water — and seems likely to provide new insights into the planet's geological history. "This is something that we've waited patiently for," Caltech geologist John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist, told journalists during a NASA teleconference.
The "Martian flower" made a splash on the Internet, in part because it looked so different from the surrounding rock in a microscopic-scale picture from Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. Few people thought it was actually a flower, though it looked a bit like one. Was it a piece of plastic from the rover itself? An unusual type of mineral?
The Planetary Science Institute's R. Aileen Yingst, deputy principal investigator for the MAHLI team, delivered the expert verdict. It's a relatively large mineral grain, or "a pebble, if you wish," measuring about a tenth of an inch (2 millimeters) wide. "It could be a lot of things, but without some chemical information to back me up, I'd really hesitate to say what it is," she said.
She pointed out that a couple of similar, darker-colored grains could be seen embedded nearby. The important thing is what such rounded grains have to say about the scene's history. "They've been knocked around, they've been busted up. They've been rounded by some process," she said. That suggests that running water helped form the rock, which has been nicknamed Gillespie Lake.
Drill, rover, drill
Five months after its landing, the six-wheeled Curiosity rover is surrounded by plenty of additional evidence that water had a hand in shaping the landscape billions of years ago. That's why Grotzinger and his colleagues have decided to put the rover's heavy-duty drill to work for the first time on a flat spread of rock called "John Klein." The name pays tribute to John W. Klein, a former deputy project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory mission who died in 2011.
"John's leadership skill played a crucial role in making Curiosity a reality," Richard Cook, the mission's project manager, said in a news release.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This image of an outcrop at the "Sheepbed" locality, taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover with its right MastCam on Dec. 13, show well-defined veins filled with whitish minerals, interpreted as calcium sulfate. These veins form when water circulates through fractures, depositing minerals along the sides of the fracture, to form a vein. This is Curiosity's first close look at minerals that formed within water that percolated within a subsurface environment.
Cook told reporters that the first drilling operation would probably take place in the next two weeks, after additional rounds of engineering tests and scientific study.
"The scientists have been let into the candy store," he said.
One of the most interesting characteristics of the site is that it's shot through with light-toned veins of calcium-rich material. "On Earth, forming veins like these requires water circulating in fractures," said Nicolas Mangold of the Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes in France. Mangold is a member of the team behind Curiosity's laser-equipped Chemistry and Camera instrument, or ChemCam.
'A whole different world'
Grotzinger marveled at how different the terrain is from the spot where Curiosity landed, even though both are within Mars' 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater. The rover's current base of operations, nestled in a shallow depression called Yellowknife Bay, has a type of bedrock that cools more slowly each night than the surrounding terrain. "We don't know what's causing the change," Grotzinger said.
"It's like we entered a whole different world," he said.
The drill at the end of Curiosity's 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) robotic arm has not yet been used, but mission managers will command it to drill a series of holes going as deep as 2 inches (5 centimeters) into the rock. The first test holes will serve to clean off any leftover earthly contamination, Cook said. Grotzinger said the drill will eventually produce scientific samples to be fed into the rover's onboard chemical labs, known as CheMin and SAM.
"What we're hoping to do is sample both the vein-filling material as well as what we call the country rock around it," he said.
Before Curiosity's landing, NASA reported that small amounts of Teflon and other material from the drill might contaminate the rock samples. On Tuesday, Cook said the scientists "could work around" the contamination issue by accounting for the unwanted chemicals when they did their analysis.
Curiosity's two-year-long primary mission is aimed at determining whether Mars could have had the chemical building blocks required for life as we know it. Eventually, the 1-ton rover will make its way to a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain in Gale Crater, but Grotzinger said scientists wanted to take ample time to investigate the mysteries they're finding along the way.
More about Curiosity's mission:
- Family gets back down to Earth after living on Mars time
- Rover gives Martian rock its first brushoff
- Curiosity studies a 'flower' on Mars
- Cosmic Log archive on Curiosity
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Trace the Curiosity rover's journey to Mars and see the pictures that the six-wheeled robot has sent back from the Red Planet.
Leave a Comment:
Does anyone actually think that NASA would tell us the truth about anything they would find?
It looks a lot like quartz to me.
If this is a 'flower' or even a pebble from "sheepbed', then where'd all the water go? Hope they figure it out...
While I find this information incredibly fascinating, I also must wonder what benefit this entire endeavor brings to Mankind. Especially given how much distress is ongoing around the planet we live on?
Shouldn't our efforts increase the benefit for Mankind, perhaps by simply discovering ways to provide clean drinking water to those around the world who have none?
Perhaps I'm being short-sighted but, I don't see how we benefit by drilling a 2 inch hole in dry rock on another planet is going to enhance life on this planet.
I believe curiosity in other planets should be a LUXURY, after we make life better for the peoples of this world.
The answers to your questions are on the internet. Do a quick search to learn what space exploration has done for you. (Hint: There is a reason we no longer live like it is 1959)
Am I the only one that thinks it looks like a piece of nylon rope? where are the conspiracy nuts on this one?
Its just martian raindeer poo.
well i wonder what they will do when i go up there and wave at the rover? you silly humans best not be drilling on mars, you might set off a chain reaction you dont want,and i bet they didnt bring any cork plugs with them either,
It look like those photos were taken from a Nevada desert.
Give me the controls to the rover. I 'll show you what NASA refuses to show you. It will change your life.
Micro sea snail shell.
so that's where I left my t.v. remote, I told my wife that I didn't sell it for drug money can't wait to show her this evidence.
I see the pessimistic conspiracy nuts are out in full force today. Was there a convention or something?
This is extremely important work, and we must take our time and do the job right. The potential rewards are limitless.
hold on michael the rewards for finding out that there used to be water on that surface billions of years ago is not "limitless", in fact the rewards begin and end with that knowledge because we can't do anything else with it other than be happy that we now know.
Only if that is how you decide to limit us. It can potentially go far beyond mere knowledge, if we have the will and desire. If, as a people, we follow your lead and give up then we are already as dead as the bronto-scorpions that ruled the Earth before the dinosaurs.
It is our choice, and we must choose to expand and grow.
We've already expanded to over seven billion people michael, I think that that's more than enough and if you honestly think that we'll ever have the technology to travel millions of lightyears away before we destroy our owwn species than you are completely dellusional. oprah though for sure
Who is talking about faster than light travel? I hate to break it to you, but Mars is not "millions of lightyears" (sic) away. Nothing in our own solar system is. Our solar system is full of methane gas, hydrogen, precious metals, heavy metals, and everything else we need here on Earth and on future worlds (in our solar system) that we can colonize. I know, it will not be easy. Heck, we might even have to get off the couch. I have faith in our abilities that we can do it. Our only real challenge is the scared people who are too afraid to try.
Faster than light travel? Perhaps someday, but not with our current understanding of science. However, we won't need that technology for several hundred, perhaps thousands of years.
what's so
great about colonizing mars? As far as we know it's a barren rock and would
produce just as much benefit to settle on as antarctica does- none. The cost
of transporting supplies there for sustaining life would be extreme, the
poeople there would have to be covered all day every day with space-suits and
when someone gets murdered there will be no way to prosecute them because
there is no such thing as space-law. overall it's a compelte logistical
nightmare and all for what, just to say that we expanded to another planet?
Let's just keep colonizing them in movies and be happy with that becuase in
that case the cost is only the amount of a set and graphic-simulations.
You know, I will bet the first person to melt copper and tin together, making bronze, received a response like this. Only they were asking, "What is wrong with the stones we have been using up until now? Sure are plenty of them just lying around. Why go to the extra work to mine metal?" People as a whole are short-sighted, superstitious, and simply afraid.
Other than start-up cost, there should be no great expense. The key is to build underground cities, heated by geothermal energy. At least until the surface can be made livable. Even then the surface temp is similar to Earth in winter, so humans can survive the temperature. The lack of air will need to be addressed, however simple algae may provide an answer there. Experiments need to be done in that area. Will it take a long time? Of course. Is it worth doing? Absolutely. Another reason, is all of that land. The available land mass on Mars is the same as that on Earth, including Antarctica. Seven million people do need room, especially when that number doubles. It is similar enough to Earth that colonizing it is easy. There is a great diplomatic reason. If all of the worlds powers are focused on achieving something great, we will have less reason to fight wars. The planets also have similar compositions. This means that things that Earth needs is on Mars. This should help to off-set the costs in the long run. Those are just a few obvious answers, probably not even the best ones.
I understand that you have given some thought to the legal system. I am certain that trivial problem can be solved by the first colonists. At least, I hope we learn something from our Earth colonies and let those bold people determine their own destiny. But, the fact that you have thought about it is actually great, as it shows a small amount of optimism. There is hope yet.
yeah I'm optomistic that this planet's good enough and thankfully so because we'll never be going to these opther places and not because people are superstitious but because most people think that suicide is wrong and therefore won't do this idiotry. People who make meth labs in their homes think that they are doing something wonderous and new as well but when it blows up in their faces all they do is become a burden on the healthcare system and make society as a whole get harmed, these space-nuts will do the same thing, just wait you cosmonaut pin-cushion.
Actually, the journey is already being planned:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49967348/
yeah well i'm planning a journey to Katty Perry's house but that probabbly won't end well either.
Give me the controls to the rover. I will show you what NASA refuses to show. It will change your life.
If there are two unknown minerals on the surface of Mars. Then just think of what might be under the surface of Mars.
New minerals equal new alloys. New alloys equal new things to be built with the minerals.
New things to be built equal a gold mine on Mars.
good pic/s. i have really enjoyed all the comments also ,.. rofl.
wasn't really that long ago, as a kid i could watch really grainy pictures on one of the 5 tv stations of Apollo missions launching. givem a few years & they'll have a McDonalds & Walmart there lol...