NASA's Curiosity rover eyes weird rock on Mars

[Ichingcarpenter]

?ve=1&tl=1

NASA's Curiosity rover photographed this rock fragment dubbed "Lamoose" on Mars. Image released July 23, 2015 (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)


?ve=1&tl=1


NASA's Curiosity rover saw this rock outcrop dubbed "Missoula," near Marias Pass on Mars. Image released July 23, 2015. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)



NASA's Mars rover Curiosity went out of its way to investigate a rock the likes of which it has never seen before on the Red Planet.

Measurements by Curiosity's rock-zapping ChemCam laser and another instrument revealed that the target, a chunk of bedrock dubbed Elk, contains high levels of silica and hydrogen, NASA officials said.

The abundance of silica — a silicon-oxygen compound commonly found here on Earth in the form of quartz — suggests that the bedrock may provide conditions conducive to the preservation of ancient carbon-containing organic molecules, if any exist in the area, the officials added. So Curiosity's handlers sent the rover back 151 feet to check Elk out. [Latest Amazing Mars Photos by NASA's Curiosity Rover]

"One never knows what to expect on Mars, but the Elk target was interesting enough to go back and investigate," ChemCam principal investigator Roger Wiens, of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said in a statement.

Elk lies near a spot on the lower reaches of the 3.4-mile-high Mount Sharp, called Marias Pass, whose rocks Curiosity had been studying. Marias Pass is a "geological contact zone" where dark sandstone meets lighter mudstone.



http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/07/29/nasa-curiosity-rover-eyes-weird-rock-on-mars/

sorry for the link to faux

[dhill926]

1. wow...incredible detail on those photos....

[central scrutinizer]

2. wider view that NASA doesn't want you to see

[link:?cache=1202536238|