The apparatus "Kuriositi" studied the clay surface of Mars and found signs of water

In April 2019, the Curiosity machine successfullyHe drilled two holes on the surface of Mars: one was made on a small rock called “Aberlady”, and the second - in the “Kilmarie” area. These zones were interested in the mission leaders even before its launch, because they have a huge amount of clay, which is formed in the presence of water. The device finally studied the composition of the clay surface of Mars and found signs that oceans once existed on the planet - who knows, maybe life on this planet does exist?

NASA has learned about the presence of claya few years before the start of the Curiosity mission - the discovery was made thanks to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) interplanetary station. The discovery of this feature was the main factor in choosing a landing site. Having reached these areas, the device drilled holes in them - to the surprise of the researchers, for this, the rover did not need to make great efforts.

Water on mars can really be

Samples of clay were found in other places.Red Planet, but in these two areas it has a different composition. In particular, we are talking about the maximum amount of clay minerals - the surface of other places on the planet could not boast of their abundance. Also, the apparatus found that in the new samples there is very little of the iron oxide mineral, hematite, while in other clay sediments there was quite a lot of it. Perhaps the apparatus was easy to drill holes precisely because of the different composition of the clay.

Researchers have announced that the new discoveryconfirms the hypothesis that a lake was once at the site of the Curiosity research. The first suspicions of scientists arose in 2012, when the rover found traces of dried streams of streams.

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