9 best images of Mars in 2016
In the brightly lit, golden inner region of our Solar System, where our Sun's streaming stellar fire can reach with its tender warmth and lovely light, the Red Planet Mars circles our Star. Perhaps no other planet has captured the human imagination more than Mars, the fourth major planet from our Sun, because we have long recognized it as a world capable of hosting life as we know it. However, despite being Earth's near-neighbor in our Solar System, Mars has nevertheless managed to keep some very intriguing, ancient secrets well-hidden from the prying eyes of curious observers. In March 2016, a team of planetary scientists released their research findings suggesting that the surface of Mars tilted by 20 to 25 degrees 3 to 3.5 billion years ago. This catastrophe was caused by a tremendous volcanic structure, the Tharsis volcanic dome, which is the largest of its seething, eruptive kind in our Solar System. Because of the volcano's extraordinary mass, it caused the outer layers of Mars to rotate around its core!
Curiosity has seen a lot of layered rocks on the surface of Mars, like these amazing rocks captured in July, 2015.
It’s not Arizona or Utah … this is planet Mars as seen by Curiosity on September, 2015. This image shows regions that include a long ridge teeming with hematite, an iron oxide. Just beyond is an undulating plain rich in clay minerals. And just beyond that are a multitude of rounded buttes, all high in sulfate minerals. The changing mineralogy in these layers of Mount Sharp suggests a changing environment in early Mars, though all involve exposure to water billions of years ago. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Sunset on Mars. The Curiosity rover captured the sun setting on April 15, 2015 from the Gale Crater. The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. The rover’s ‘Mastcam’ sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are. Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun’s part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Diverse composition of mineral veins at the ‘Garden City’ site investigated by Curiosity suggests multiple episodes of groundwater activity. The prominent mineral veins vary in thickness and brightness, and include: 1) thin, dark-toned fracture filling material; 2) thick, dark-toned vein material in large fractures; 3) light-toned vein material, which was deposited last. Researchers used the Mastcam and other instruments on Curiosity in March and April 2015 to study the structure and composition of mineral veins at Garden City, for information about fluids that deposited minerals in fractured rock there. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This is an area lining the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp. The scene combines multiple images taken with the Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Sept. 25, 2015. Dunes are larger than wind-blown ripples of sand or dust that Curiosity and other rovers have visited previously.
A selfie on Mars. Curiosity extended its robotic arm and used the camera on the arm’s end to capture this self portrait on October 6, 2015. The image was taken at the ‘Big Sky’ site, where its drill collected the mission’s fifth taste of Mount Sharp. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Dark rocks on route to mountains. Diverse terrain is visible on this image taken on Mount Sharp on April 10, 2015. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Damage on the aluminum wheels is evident after 7 miles (11.3 km) on the odometer of the Curiosity rover. Mars’ terrain and diverse rocks led to more wheel damage than was expected. However scientists think the 20 inches (51 cm) wheels may permit the rover to continue its mission. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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