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Aeolis Palus
Aeolis Palus is a plain between the northern wall of Gale crater and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) on Mars. It is located at . The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission landed the ''Curiosity'' rover on Aeolis Palus in August 2012. ''Curiosity'' spent two (Earth) years exploring the plain as it drove towards Aeolis Mons. The rover left the plain in September 2014 when it reached the mountain's foothills. Spacecraft exploration On August 5, 2012, at 10:32 p.m. PDT/mission time (August 6, 2012, at 5:32 UTC), mission control at JPL received a signal from the NASA ''Curiosity'' rover that it had successfully landed in "Yellowknife" ''Quad 51'' of ''Aeolis Palus''. The rover's mission is to explore the surface area of Gale Crater focusing first near its landing site on ''Aeolis Palus'' and then venturing into the nearby foothills of Aeolis Mons (unofficially, "Mount Sharp") to investigate its geological features and strata. On September 26, 2013, NASA sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USGS
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization's work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior; it is that department's sole scientific agency. The USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, and Menlo Park, California. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world". The agency's previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its hundredth an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocknest (Mars)
Rocknest is a sand patch on the surface of Aeolis Palus, between Peace Vallis and Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp), in Gale crater on the planet Mars. The patch was encountered by the ''Curiosity'' rover on the way from Bradbury Landing to Glenelg Intrigue on September 28, 2012. The approximate site coordinates are: . The sand patch is downhill from a cluster of dark rocks. NASA determined the patch to be the location for the first use of the scoop on the arm of the Mars ''Curiosity'' rover. The Rocknest patch is about by . Discovery and material analysis On October 7, 2012, a mysterious bright object ( image), discovered in the sand at Rocknest, drew scientific interest. Several close-up picturesclose-up 1close-up 2 were taken of the object and preliminary interpretations by scientists suggest the object to be "debris from the spacecraft". Nonetheless, further images in the nearby sand have detected other bright particlesimageclose-up 1. These newly discovered objects are pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mugearite
Mugearite () is a type of oligoclase-bearing basalt, comprising olivine, apatite, and opaque oxides. The main feldspar in mugearite is oligoclase. Mugearite is a sodium-rich member of the alkaline magma series. In the TAS classification of volcanic rock, mugearite is classified as sodium-rich basaltic trachyandesite. Examples Western Scotland Mugearite was first identified at Mugeary on the island of Skye, Scotland by Alfred Harker in 1904. Outcrops of mugearite also occur on the island of Mull. These examples of mugearite were formed during a period of continental flood basalt volcanic activity that happened in western Scotland during the Paleogene period of the Earth's geological history, when the North Atlantic Ocean opened between Europe and North America. Oceanic islands Mugearite has been erupted by the volcanoes of some oceanic islands at hotspots. Examples are Hawaii, Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Réunion, Mauritius and Tahiti.https://www.tulane.edu/~sanel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glenelg, Mars
Glenelg, Mars (or ''Glenelg Intrigue'') is a location on Mars near the Mars Science Laboratory (''Curiosity rover'') landing site (Bradbury Landing) in Gale Crater marked by a natural intersection of three kinds of terrain. Name The location was named ''Glenelg'' by NASA scientists for two reasons: all features in the immediate vicinity were given names associated with Yellowknife in northern Canada, and Glenelg is the name of a geological feature there. Furthermore, the name is a palindrome, and as the ''Curiosity'' rover is planned to visit the location twice (once coming, and once going) this was an appealing feature for the name. The original Glenelg is a village in Scotland which on 20 October 2012 had a ceremony, including a live link to NASA, to celebrate their "twinning" with Glenelg on Mars. The trek to Glenelg will send the rover east-southeast of its landing site. One of the three types of terrain intersecting at Glenelg is layered bedrock, which is attractive as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jake M (rock)
Jake Matijevic (or Jake M) is a pyramidal rock on the surface of Aeolis Palus, between Peace Vallis and Aeolis Mons ("Mount Sharp"), in Gale crater on the planet Mars. The approximate site coordinates are: . The rock was encountered by the ''Curiosity'' rover on the way from Bradbury Landing to Glenelg Intrigue in September 2012 and measures about height and width. The rock was named by NASA after Jacob Matijevic (1947–2012), a mathematician-turned-rover-engineer, who played a critical role in the design of the six-wheeled rover, but died just days after the ''Curiosity'' rover landed in August 2012. Matijevic was the surface operations systems chief engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory Project and the project's ''Curiosity'' rover. He was also a leading engineer for all of the previous NASA Mars rovers including ''Sojourner'', '' Spirit'' and ''Opportunity''. The rover team determined the rock to be a suitable target for the first use of ''Curiosity''s contact i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenix (spacecraft)
''Phoenix'' was an uncrewed space probe that landed on the surface of Mars on May 25, 2008, and operated until November 2, 2008. ''Phoenix'' was operational on Mars for sols ( days). Its instruments were used to assess the local habitability and to research the history of water on Mars. The mission was part of the Mars Scout Program; its total cost was $420 million, including the cost of launch. The multi-agency program was led by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, with project management by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Academic and industrial partners included universities in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA) and other aerospace companies. It was the first NASA mission to Mars led by a public university. ''Phoenix'' was NASA's sixth successful landing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organic Matter
Organic matter, organic material, or natural organic matter refers to the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come from the feces and remains of organisms such as plants and animals. Organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that do not involve life. Basic structures are created from cellulose, tannin, cutin, and lignin, along with other various proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Organic matter is very important in the movement of nutrients in the environment and plays a role in water retention on the surface of the planet. Formation Living organisms are composed of organic compounds. In life, they secrete or excrete organic material into their environment, shed body parts such as leaves and roots and after organisms die, their bodies are broken down by bacterial and fungal action. Larger molecules of organic matter can be formed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perchlorates
A perchlorate is a chemical compound containing the perchlorate ion, . The majority of perchlorates are commercially produced salts. They are mainly used as oxidizers for pyrotechnic devices and to control static electricity in food packaging. Perchlorate contamination in food, water, and other parts of the environment has been studied in the U.S. because of harmful effects on human health. Perchlorate ions are somewhat toxic to the thyroid gland. Most perchlorates are colorless solids that are soluble in water. Four perchlorates are of primary commercial interest: ammonium perchlorate , perchloric acid , potassium perchlorate and sodium perchlorate . Perchlorate is the anion resulting from the dissociation of perchloric acid and its salts upon their dissolution in water. Many perchlorate salts are soluble in non-aqueous solutions. Production Perchlorate salts are produced industrially by the oxidation of aqueous solutions of sodium chlorate by electrolysis. This method is use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martian Dust
Martian soil is the fine regolith (a blanket of unconsolidated, loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock) found on the surface of Mars. Its properties can differ significantly from those of terrestrial soil, including its toxicity due to the presence of perchlorates. The term ''Martian soil'' typically refers to the finer fraction of regolith. So far, no samples have been returned to Earth, the goal of a Mars sample-return mission, but the soil has been studied remotely with the use of Mars rovers and Mars orbiters. On Earth, the term "soil" usually includes organic content. In contrast, planetary scientists adopt a functional definition of soil to distinguish it from rocks. Rocks generally refer to 10 cm scale and larger materials (e.g., fragments, breccia, and exposed outcrops) with high thermal inertia, with areal fractions consistent with the Viking Infrared Thermal Mapper (IRTM) data, and immobile under current aeolian (wind) conditions. Conseque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martian Soil
Martian soil is the fine regolith (a blanket of unconsolidated, loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock) found on the surface of Mars. Its properties can differ significantly from those of terrestrial soil, including its toxicity due to the presence of perchlorates. The term ''Martian soil'' typically refers to the finer fraction of regolith. So far, no samples have been returned to Earth, the goal of a Mars sample-return mission, but the soil has been studied remotely with the use of Mars rovers and Mars orbiters. On Earth, the term "soil" usually includes organic content. In contrast, planetary scientists adopt a functional definition of soil to distinguish it from rocks. Rocks generally refer to 10 cm scale and larger materials (e.g., fragments, breccia, and exposed outcrops) with high thermal inertia, with areal fractions consistent with the Viking Infrared Thermal Mapper (IRTM) data, and immobile under current aeolian (wind) conditions. Consequ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felsic
In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, which are relatively richer in magnesium and iron. Felsic refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Felsic magma or lava is higher in viscosity than mafic magma/lava. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific gravities less than 3. The most common felsic rock is granite. Common felsic minerals include quartz, muscovite, orthoclase, and the sodium-rich plagioclase feldspars (albite-rich). Terminology In modern usage, the term ''acid rock'', although sometimes used as a synonym, normally now refers specifically to a high-silica-content (greater than 63% SiO2 by weight) volcanic rock, such as rhyolite. Older, broader ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mafic
A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks include basalt, diabase and gabbro. Mafic rocks often also contain calcium-rich varieties of plagioclase feldspar. Mafic materials can also be described as ferromagnesian. History The term ''mafic'' is a portmanteau of "magnesium" and "ferric" and was coined by Charles Whitman Cross, Joseph P. Iddings, Louis Valentine Pirsson, and Henry Stephens Washington in 1912. Cross' group had previously divided the major rock-forming minerals found in igneous rocks into ''salic'' minerals, such as quartz, feldspars, or feldspathoids, and ''femic'' minerals, such as olivine and pyroxene. However, micas and aluminium-rich amphiboles were excluded, while some calcium minerals containing little iron or magnesium, such as wollastonite or apatite, were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
