NASA : Possible Signs of Ancient Drying in Martian Rock .- Posibles signos de secado antiguo en la roca marciana

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia21263/possible-signs-of-ancient-drying-in-martian-rock

 

      

Possible Signs of Ancient Drying in Martian Rock (with labels)

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A grid of small polygons on the Martian rock surface near the right edge of this view may have originated as cracks in drying mud more than 3 billion years ago. Multiple images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover were combined for this mosaic of a block called "Squid Cove" and its immediate surroundings.

The location is within an exposure of Murray formation mudstone on lower Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Mastcam's right-eye camera, which has a telephoto lens, took the component images of this view on Dec. 20, 2016, during the 1,555th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The rover drove farther uphill on Gale Crater before the possible mud cracks were detected in the Mastcam images. This possible evidence about the area's ancient environment prompted the rover mission to backtrack for closer inspection of Squid Cove and nearby target rocks.

This scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

The polygons are about half an inch to 1 inch (about 1 to 2 centimeters) across. Figure A includes a scale bar of 30 centimeters (12 inches).  The polygons are outlined by ridges.  This could result from a three-step process after cracks form due to drying: Wind-blown sediments accumulate in the open cracks. Later, these sediments and the dried mud become rock under the pressure of multiple younger layers that accumulate on top of them. Most recently, after the overlying layers were eroded away by wind, the vein-filling material resists erosion better than the once-muddy material, so the pattern that began as cracks appears as ridges.

Mud cracks would be evidence of a drying interval between wetter periods that supported lakes in the area. Curiosity has found evidence of ancient lakes in older, lower-lying rock layers and also in younger mudstone that is above Squid Cove.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Mastcam.  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built the project's Curiosity rover. More information about Curiosity is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

 and

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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Last Updated: Jan. 18, 2017

Editor: Martin Perez

Tags:  Image of the Day, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mars, Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity),

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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NASA : Full-Circle Vista from 'Naukluft Plateau' on Mars .- Vista del Círculo completo desde la "Meseta 'Naukluft ' en Marte

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Agencia Espacial NASA, la captación del Robot Curiosity de la Meseta Naukluft, en Marte....

More information...........

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pia20332/full-circle-vista-from-naukluft-plateau-on-mars

This mid-afternoon, 360-degree panorama was acquired by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on April 4, 2016, as part of long-term campaign to document the context and details of the geology and landforms along Curiosity's traverse since landing in August 2012.

The view combines dozens of images taken during the mission's 1,302nd sol, or Martian day, by Mastcam's left-eye camera from a location on top of what rover team members call "Naukluft Plateau" on lower Mount Sharp, which stands inside Gale Crater.

The foreground and middle distance show a geologic scene dominated by eroded remnants of a finely layered ancient sandstone deposit. Since landing, the rover traversed through terrains dominated by water-lain sedimentary rocks (mudstones and siltstones, and early on, conglomerates), some of which have contained minerals like clays that attest to the ancient presence of water.  However, the rover crossed into very different geology while climbing onto the Naukluft Plateau. The sandstone here appears to be dominated by thick layers of windblown sand, suggesting that these deposits formed in a drier epoch.  These rocks resemble the types of rocks that a dune field like the "Bagnold Dunes" http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20283 -- visited by Curiosity in late 2015 and early 2016 --would form if buried. 

The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

A portion of the rim of Gale Crater fills the horizon in the center of the image, with upper Mount Sharp on the horizon at right.  South is at both ends of this full-circle scene; north is at center. The rover's location when its Mastcam acquired the component images of this scene was the site it reached in its Sol 1301 drive, http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7787.

This image adds two small scale bars to the scene. One at left center is placed on rocks about 16 feet (5 meters) from the camera and marks a length of 50 centimeters (20 inches).  The other is in the upper center of the scene, placed on rocks about 164 feet (50 meters) from the camera and marking a length of 4 meters (13 feet).

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover and its Navcam. For more information about Curiosity, visit

 http://www.nasa.gov/msl

and

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.    

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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Last Updated: April 27, 2016

Editor: Tony Greicius

Tags:  Image of the Day, Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity),

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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