NASA’s Curiosity Is Investigating Sand Dunes On Mars

Curiosity has been studying the red planet since 2012, but it has only now reached the sand dunes and been able to send photographic proof. The objective is to find as much information possible about the surface of the Red Planet.

The dunes close to Curiosity’s current location are part of “Bagnold Dunes”, a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater.

The rover’s planned investigations include scooping a sample of the dune material for analysis with laboratory instruments inside Curiosity.

Mount Sharp is around 3 miles high.

This view shows grains of sand where NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover was driven into a shallow sand sheet near a large dune. Curiosity is also investigating the region’s lowest sediment layers.

Actually, scientists believe that Gale Crater hosted more lakes, lasting about 10,000 years each, a long enough time for life to be supported. Our future as a multi-planetary species depends on Curiosity’s findings.

Recently, it came across some huge sand dunes at the lower part of the mountain with some as tall as two stories high, which scientists said are very active that moves roughly about three feet each year. The sand dunes were found when curiosity was on an excursion up one of the layered mountains. The images were slightly adjusted to resemble daytime conditions on Earth.

One of the goals of NASA’s ongoing Mars Science Laboratory Project is to use the rover to look at ancient and potentially habitable environments, and to determine how the landscape of the Red Planet changed over the course of several million years, the United Kingdom news outlet added.

Now scientists have to hurry up as some small holes and tears are appearing in the aluminum skin around the rover’s wheels.

Using the onboard Mast Camera (Mastcam), the rover captured photos of the dunes during its exploration period on November 27, where the rover will determine the significant changes at the dunes over time.

And now Curiosity is already on Mount Sharp, mission team is impatiently excited to see what the planet holds secret to humans. But now Curiosity is there and its presence has given researchers an up close view, as the images are better and more recognizable.