NASA’s Curiosity Rover May Have Uncovered the Mystery of Mars’ Missing Carbonates
New analyses from NASA’s Curiosity rover offer important clues about the fate of Mars’ ancient atmosphere and the processes that shaped the planet over time.
A Long-Standing Carbonate Mystery
For years, scientists have believed that Mars once had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and liquid water on its surface. Theoretically, this combination should have led to the formation of carbonate minerals through reactions with Martian rocks. However, until now, neither rover missions nor spectroscopic satellite data had detected the expected levels of carbonates on the Martian surface.
In a study published in Science in April, data from Curiosity’s three drill sites revealed the presence of siderite — an iron carbonate mineral — embedded within sulfate-rich layers of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater.
The discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater is an unexpected and critical breakthrough in our understanding of Mars’ geological and atmospheric evolution, said Benjamin Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, and the study’s lead author.
To analyze the planet’s chemical and mineral composition, Curiosity drills 3 to 4 centimeters below the surface, collecting powdered rock samples that are analyzed by its onboard CheMin instrument. Developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, CheMin uses X-ray diffraction to identify the minerals present. The data is then processed by scientists at NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Revealing Mars’ Geological Layers
Drilling into Mars’ layered terrain is like flipping through the pages of a history book,” said Thomas Bristow, a research scientist at NASA Ames and co-author of the study. “Just a few centimeters down gives us a glimpse of the minerals that formed near the surface around 3.5 billion years ago.
Other minerals in satellite spectral data may obscure the carbonates discovered beneath the surface. If other sulfate-rich regions across Mars also contain hidden carbonates, the amount of CO₂ stored in these layers could represent only a portion of what would have been necessary to support a warm, water-rich atmosphere.Space may have carried away the rest, or hidden deposits may still trap it.
Future missions or investigations targeting similar sulfate-rich areas could confirm these findings and provide a clearer picture of Mars’ early history and the atmospheric loss that shaped it.
NASA incluiu o Curiosity em seu Programa de Exploração de Marte, e o Laboratório de Propulsão a Jato (JPL), gerenciado pelo Caltech em Pasadena, Califórnia, desenvolveu o rover. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Read the original article on: Nasa
Read more: NASA Rover Zaps Martian Rocks, Uncovers Ancient Mystery
