curiosity-rover-begins-to-study-dunes-on-mars

Curiosity rover begins to study dunes on Mars

By [173]Michael Casey
Published December 18, 2015
[174]FoxNews.com
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The rippled surface of the first Martian sand dune ever studied up
close fills this Nov. 27, 2015, view of "High Dune" from the Mast
Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

The rippled surface of the first Martian sand dune ever studied up
close fills this Nov. 27, 2015, view of "High Dune" from the Mast
Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has begun an up-close investigation of dark
sand dunes up to two stories tall on the Red Planet.

The rover will be passing over the dunes on its trek up the lower
portion of a layered Martian mountain, a trip that should take several
months.

The dunes close to Curiosity's current location are part of "Bagnold
Dunes," a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale
Crater. The dunes are made from basaltic minerals, which give them
their dark color. Observations of this dune field seen from orbit show
that edges of individual dunes move as much as 3 feet per Earth year.

Related: [180]Martian sand dune resembles a massive leech

They don’t look all that different from dunes found on Earth. But this
is the first investigation of an active sand field on another planet.

NASA plans to have the rover scoop up a sample of the dune material for
analysis with laboratory instruments inside Curiosity.

Related: [181]Strange ‘figure’ spotted by Mars Curiosity Rover

Among other things, scientists hope to learn how the dunes move and
whether they are different than those found on Earth â€" since the Mars
atmosphere is less than 1 percent as thick as Earth and its gravity is
only a third of Earth. They also want to find out whether sand grains
of different sizes possibly include different types of minerals.

Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached
the base of Mount Sharp in 2014 after investigating outcrops closer to
its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main mission
objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount Sharp.

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Source .... : http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/12/18/curiosity-rover-begins-to-study-dunes-on-mars.html
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