NASA's Curiosity Rover finds clay minerals on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover has found reserves of clay minerals on Mars, which is largest amount during its mission so far.

Size comparison of Earth and Mars. 

Credits: NASA/ESA 

Highlights:

1. Curiosity Rover finds largest ever reserves of clay minerals on the surface of Mars. 
2. The rover has collected samples of rocks from the targets called "Aberlady" and "Kilmarie."
3. This mineral rich area is next to the lower Mount Sharpe.

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover has found largest ever found reserves of clay minerals on the Martian surface during its mission. The American Space Agency NASA has said in a statement that Curiosity Rover collected samples of rocks from two Martian sites called 'Aberlady' and 'Killamar'. 

According to the statement, this discovery was made from a selfie of Curiosity rover Mars, on 12th May - 2405th Martian day, or sol of the mission on the Red Planet. The Space Agency further said that this mineral rich area is next to the Lower Mount Sharpe, where the Curiosity rover landed in 2012. 

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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie on May 12, 2019 (the 2,405th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). To the lower-left of the rover are its two recent drill holes, at targets called "Aberlady" and "Kilmarie." Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Curiosity rover is exploring Mount Sharpe to find any evidence that if there was a suitable environment for life on the Red Planet billions of years ago. Smooth clay is often made from water which is essential for life. Rover's special equipment Chemin (chemistry and mineralogy) has analyzed the rock samples collected from the field of clay minerals for the first time.

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about four billion years ago. The young planet Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres. 
Credits: ESO

Chemin has also received traces of hematite in this region. Hematite is a ferrous oxide mineral which is available in large quantities in the Vera Rubin Ridge in the north. According to NASA, there is evidence of large amount of water in the Gayle Crater at one time, while discussions continue to show what these new discoveries could mean for the area. According to NASA, the rocks of this region could have been created from the sludge of old lakes.

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More information about Curiosity is at: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/

More information about Mars is at:

https://mars.nasa.gov/