Followers, you might be asking yourselves what is the current update to the Curiosity mission in Mars? What new discoveries has our highly trained scientists discovered this week? Well, we have the answer for you! We found an article describing the recent updates and here they are in a nutshell:
The Curiosity Rover, has made interesting observations on different wind patterns and natural radiation patterns. It has identified whirlwinds, discovering their location relating to certain slopes, tracked the changes of air pressure and radiation in the atmosphere in Mars. While located at the Gale Crater, Curiosity found that the whirlwinds have the characteristics of changes in air pressure, wind direction, speed, and ultraviolet light beaming on the rover. According to Manuel de la Torre Juarez, the scientist in charged for REMS (Rover Environmental Station), the dust in the atmosphere has a major role in shaping the climate and it warms the atmosphere. It surprised the researchers to find that the dominant wind direction is east-west instead of north-south winds. They believe it has to do with the shape of the rim of Gale Crater.
Regarding the seasonal increase it was due to the carbon dioxide that was frozen into an ice cap, then returning into the atmosphere. There was high pressure in the morning and low pressure in the night resulted from the daytime heating of the atmosphere by the sun, and as the morning approached westward around the planet as would the “thermal tides”. To conclude, the main objectives of this mission is find out if Mars is habitable and find the main differences and similarities to Earth and Mars.Chemistry Group: Fernanda Chow, Bianca Chavez and Yaniset Fundora. References: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27047602/highlight/304906 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/telecon/index.html http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1393
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