“The question now is whether the habitable conditions that Curiosity has found up to now persisted through these changes. “We’re seeing evidence of dramatic changes in the ancient Martian climate,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The morning sun was 25 degrees above the horizon of Mars at the time the image was taken. Now, the intrepid rover is driving through a canyon that marks the transition to a new region, one thought to have formed as water was drying out, leaving behind salty minerals called sulfates. Mars Global Surveyor acquired a high-resolution 4.4 km x 41.5 km swath of the Cydonia Mense region of Mars, including the feature known as the 'Face on Mars' (located at approximately 40.8 N, 9.6 W) on 5 April 1998. A geological transition zone, Cydonia includes eroded mesas, impact craters, and generally smooth ground separating them. Each layer higher up on Mount Sharp serves as a record of a more recent era of Mars’ environment. The crater once held a lake, the size of which waxed and waned over time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltechīut most important, Curiosity has determined that liquid water as well as the chemical building blocks and nutrients needed for supporting life were present for at least tens of millions of years in Gale Crater. Learn more about Curiosity’s 10th year on Mars from the mission’s deputy project scientist, Abigail Fraeman.
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