The Coffee House
Curiosity rover - Printable Version

+- The Coffee House (https://tch-forum.com)
+-- Forum: Topical discussions (https://tch-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=19)
+--- Forum: Science and Nature (https://tch-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=21)
+---- Forum: Astronomy and Space Life (https://tch-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=23)
+---- Thread: Curiosity rover (/showthread.php?tid=3847)


Curiosity rover - Kyng - 06-24-2019

Cross-posted from the old board:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_coffee_house/curiosity-rover-t2390.html

Curiosity is a rover operated by NASA, sent to Mars in order to investigate the Martian geology (for signs of past life or future habitability by humans). It arrived on Mars in August 2012, and it was originally supposed to operate until 2014; however, as of 2019, it's still going strong :) . You'll see in the thread on the old board that we covered it quite a bit between 2012-13 (with one final post in 2018); however, since it's still doing useful and interesting science, I thought I'd cross-post that thread onto here and get it going again :P .

Apparently, the rover recently found a large concentration of methane. This is particularly intriguing, because this gas is produced in large quantities by life on Earth:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48743551

This doesn't prove the existence of life on Mars, since methane can also be produced by non-organic processes; however, I'd be interested to learn more!

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 06-27-2019

And, as quickly as it came, the methane is gone again:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/science/mars-methane-nasa.html

Scientists are still none the wiser. One theory, however, is that it comes from a reservoir deep underground, which may have been created by life in the distant past...

RE: Curiosity rover - Detective Osprey - 07-12-2019

Wow... I think it might habour life. That's amazing.

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 10-07-2019

Seems like it's found some mineral salts, which are evidence of an ancient oasis:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191007112956.htm

Nice :) . I wonder how common these are?

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 11-14-2019

This rover's made quite an interesting discovery. The concentration of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere has risen by 30% in spring and summer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50419917

There's no explanation for this yet - and the eventual explanation for it is likely to be geological in nature - however, they can't yet rule out an explanation involving microbial life. Either way, I'll be interested to see what it is!

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 11-07-2021

Well, this mission is still going, and still doing valuable work :P . For example, it's just found previously-unknown organic molecules on Mars:

https://www.sciencealert.com/curiosity-finds-new-organic-molecules-on-mars-in-an-unexpected-place

Now, this doesn't conclusively prove the existence of life on Mars (and, notably, there were no amino-acid derivatives here). However, the techniques used to find them (which did not require drilling) can certainly be re-applied in future searches for life!

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 05-13-2022

And now, this rover has discovered a picture of a rock formation, that resembles a doorway:

Click to enlarge
(Click to enlarge)

According to this Live Science article, it's most likely just a natural feature created by erosion - but, it would be fun to think it's aliens Alien .

RE: Curiosity rover - Moonshroom - 05-13-2022

Dude, I didn't even know that we had this subforum xD

Cool pics, though!

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 05-14-2022

(05-13-2022, 11:26 PM)Moonshroom Wrote: Dude, I didn't even know that we had this subforum xD

Cool pics, though!

Well, the name is fairly new, but the sub-forum itself isn't.

It used to be called "Earth and Space"; however, I eventually found that: a) about 80% of the threads were about space and astronomy, and b) the 'Earth' threads and the 'Space' threads had very little to do with each other, so I narrowed its focus to just space and astronomy :P .

RE: Curiosity rover - Kyng - 08-07-2022

On Friday, Curiosity marked the 10th anniversary of its landing on Mars:

https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9240/10-years-since-landing-nasas-curiosity-mars-rover-still-has-drive/

Congrats to it - and it sounds like the mission still has a long way to go!