Eighty-three million miles away from Earth, the Mars rover has made a huge discovery about Mars. After ten years, the rover has finally discovered a salty region on the planet and how Mars shifted from Earth-like features to the barren planet it is today.
The Mars rover Curiosity has been drilling multiple rocks for minerals to find out why Mars has become so dry. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected a rock named “Canaima” for the mission’s 36th drill sample.
Scientists at NASA state that, “...choosing was no easy task. Along with scientific considerations, the team had to factor in the rover hardware. Curiosity uses a percussive, or jackhammering, rotary drill at the end of its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to pulverize rock samples for analysis...The rover not only needs to be careful with its drilling, but also its driving.”
The ground has lots of uneven cliffs, so it took the rover over a month to reach this area. Although it has been very hard to find this area, reach it, and inquire how Mars became barren, the Mars rover awed scientists with a beautiful panoramic photo from its Mast Camera.
Although NASA has yet to make any more discoveries about this region on Mars, this discovery has been a huge deal.
“The more and more interesting the science results get, the more obstacles Mars seems to throw at us,” says Amador-French, a scientist at NASA.
Hopefully, the Mars rover will be able to traverse Mars easily soon, so that we may know more about our rocky neighbor.