The Curiosity Rover has discovered more evidence that ancient Mars was a watery world. But about 3.5 billion years ago it began to change into the frigid, dry, airless world we know today. Curiosity art and inset photo NASA.
Our adventures on Mars just made another liquid discovery. Yep, the Curiosity rover has uncovered more evidence of ample water on ancient Mars. Given all the data compiled to date, let’s just say water on early Mars is undeniable.
Also a given is the fact that water is one of the prime ingredients for life. Add in the fact that there is currently there is a growing body of evidence that ancient Mars had more oxygen in its atmosphere and experienced warmer temperatures, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see that life could well have existed in a very primitive form on Mars. Extrapolate that line of logic, and it’s conceivable that life permeates our universe – in one form or another.
While we’re on Mars, NASA has a new, even more sophisticated rover on the drawing boards. It is scheduled to launch in 2020 and will have a host of new and improved data-gathering gizmos onboard.
The new rover will be based on the platform of the current Curiosity rover. Why mess with success? One of the most exciting things the new rover will do is to collect and package Martian rock and regolith (a fancy term for loose dirt) for return to Earth at a future date via another mission. But before you go out to dig up the regolith in your garden, there’s more.
The new rover will have an improved laser system that will bounce data back from nearby rocks for analysis. It will also have stereo cameras capable of making 3D images, much improved drilling systems and a more sophisticated weather station.
The new rover won’t arrive and land on Mars until sometime in February of 2021. The exact date for arrival on Mars depends on the available 30-day launch window in 2020. That’s why we don’t have an exact arrival date at this time.
The Juno Mission which just arrived at Jupiter is currently probing into the depths of that huge planet with its radar eyes. While humans will probably visit the gas giant, there are a lot of things to discover about its amazing weather systems and, of course, the Giant Red Spot or GRS.
The resurrected Kepler Mission has added another 100 potential exoplanets (planets orbiting distant suns). The current tally of confirmed exoplanets is 2,339. The total of confirmed and probable exoplanets exceeds 4,000. And some of them are bizarre to say the least. One confirmed solar system orbits a trio of suns, while we have also discovered another that has two host stars or suns.
Until we meet again, remember to keep your outdoor lamps dimmed down and aimed down. You’ll save energy, money and help preserve our dark Kawartha night sky.
By John Crossen
Questions or comments? Contact johnstargazer@nexicom.net.
