NASA ’s Curiosity is exploring the slopes of Mars ' Mount Sharp , the highest feature within the Gale Crater . This surface area was once a large lake and the rover is studying the composition of the dirt to better see how this mountain came to form , and how different Mars was gazillion of years ago .
One of the robotic explorer ’s instruments focuses on minerals that only form in the presence of urine . And a few weeks ago , it shine gold . Well , stiff . It collect two sampling and found thelargest amount of clay mineralsever found during the delegation . Curiosity has spend over 2,425 Martian days ( or so ) on the Red Planet , since get there on August 6 , 2012 .
The rover practise two objective rock candy , nicknamed " Aberlady " and " Kilmarie " . Although they contain more clay minerals , they are poorer in hematite , an atomic number 26 oxide that was common on the Vera Rubin Ridge ( named after the famous American astronomer ) , which Curiosity previously explore and only recently leave justa few month ago .
It is believe that the rocks currently being canvass on Mount Sharp formed from ancient layer of clay . The physical composition of the sample distribution is giving research worker insights into what the region looks like . We believe H2O is one of the central constituent for the formation of life sentence , so it could be possible that once upon a fourth dimension this region had life-time . So far we have n’t found any conclusive evidence that this was indeed the subject .
Between oil production , analyzing samples , and taking selfies , the rover has also been work as a meteorologist . It observed drifting water internal-combustion engine cloud on May 7 and May 12 roughly 31 km ( 19 naut mi ) high . NASA ’s lander InSight also , late , observed clouds . The team execute the two mission are planning to organize observations . The rover and the lander are 600 kilometers ( 372 miles ) apart so observe the same clouds would earmark them to more incisively estimate their altitude .
