NASA’s Curiosity Rover was built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. The JPL manages the Curiosity and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in the name of the NASA Scientific Missions Directorate in Washington, as part of the Mars exploration program of the agency. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, Opera Hirise, built by Bae Systems in Boulder, Colorado.
As part of the mission of Mars scientific laboratory (MSLby NASA) It was launched on November 26, 2011, and arrived at Martian soil successfully at the Gale crater on August 6, 2012.
At the beginning of their mission, Curiosity’s scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of old habitable environments on Mars. He continues to explore the rock record of an era in which Mars could have housed microbial life.
The MSL evaluates whether Mars ever had an environment capable of hosting microbial life. Determining the past habitability of the red planet provides NASA, and the scientific community in general, a better Understanding whether there could have been life on Mars and, if existed, an idea of where to look for it in the future.
1- Mars had water in liquid state on its surface
One of the most recent findings. Curiosity detected undulations in the rocks of the Gale crater that reveals that Martian water was in direct contact with the atmosphere.
Curiosity detected a set of undulations in 2022, in the region known as ProWan area that once housed dunes driven by the wind. The second set of undulations, Located in the Rocky Strip Amapari Marker Band, it suggests that there was a lake up to 2 meters deepbut at a more advanced stage of the Martian climate.
The latest investigations suggest that, about 37 billion years ago, Mars had water in a liquid state in contact with its atmosphere.
A study led by scientists from the Technological Institute of California, suggests that About 37 billion years ago, Mars had water in a liquid state in contact with its atmosphere. This challenges the previous theories that postulated that he could only have ice on his surface.
In 2014, Rover Curiosity had already identified long -term lake signalsbut his new discovery is the first test of open lakes in the air. Previous Martian missions, as Opportunity in 2004, had identified undulations created by water that flowed, but there was no clear evidence of open and iceless lakes, now yes, Curiosity has succeeded.
2- Life on Mars millions of years ago
A recent finding of Rover Curiosity has excited the scientific community, they have identified the largest organic molecules ever detected on the red planet. These new discovered organic compounds contain 10, 11 and 12 carbon atoms, which has led scientists to believe that they are fragments of fatty acids preserved in rover samples.
With these largest organic molecules detected by Curiosity, organic chemistry on Mars could have reached the level of complexity necessary for the appearance of life.
Previously, Curiosity had identified simpler organic molecules on Mars. However, the findings of more complex compounds such as these mark significant advance. These molecules indicate that lOrganic chemistry on Mars could have reached the level of complexity necessary for the appearance of life.
The study also offers Hope to find biosignurasthat is, molecules that can only be formed in life. This is relevant because Until now it was feared that intense radiation and Martian oxidation could have destroyed these compounds in millions of years.
3- Night clouds in the Martian sky
Clouds dyed red and green move through the Martian sky in a set of images captured by the Curiosity Rover NASA using the Mastcam, its main set of “eyes.” Taken for 16 minutes on January 17, 2025, the images show the latest observations of what are called noctilucent clouds (From the Latin “bright night”), or crepuscular clouds, dyed color by the dispersed light of the west sun.
Sometimes, these clouds even create a colored rainbow, producing iridescent or “pear” clouds. Too faint to be seen in daylight, They are only visible when the clouds are especially high and the afternoon has fallen.
Martian clouds are made of water ice or, at higher altitudes and lower temperatures, carbon dioxide ice. The atmosphere of Mars is composed of more than 95% by carbon dioxide. The latter are the only clouds observed in Mars that produce iridescence, and can be seen near the top of the new images at an altitude of between 60 and 80 kilometers.
4- The colors of the marte soil (is the “red planet”?)
We know Mars as the red planet, because we see it in the night sky from Earth. However, just drilling a little inside, on Mars look very different colors.
Curiosity has successfully drilled about 49 times, and sediments reveal a wide range of colorsfrom the Red Almagre to the grayish blue, reflecting the minerals and fluids that have come into contact with the old rocks. This allows scientists to go beyond the oxidized surface that has been more exposed to cosmic radiation.
5- Diablos of dust captured by Curiosity and Perseverance
In the Martian atmosphere there is no presence of rain, and that is why the dust accumulates on the surface of the neighboring planet. The winds generated by the sun’s rays that heat the ground can form Large wind swirls known as dust devils. These are mostly invisible, but when a strong vortex passes over a dusty surface, the particles that raise reveal its shape.
An animation made with photos taken over more than four minutes in the Sun 2847 by Curiosity, captured a whirlwind at a distance between 1 and 1.5 kilometers from the vehicle. You can perfectly observe a whirlwind of some 5 meters wide and a height of at least 50 meters.
Recently (April 2025), the six -wheel explorer rover Perseveranceanother of the robotic vehicles designed and manufactured by NASA, Explore in this case the Crater Jezero de Mars. Perseverance recently captured images of several swirls of dust on the red planet turning on the edge of the crater and looks like a whirlwind of Martian dust “devours” to a smaller one.
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