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January 1st, 2017
Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image taken on Sol 1566, January 1, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is nearing Sol 1567, landing on the planet in August 2012.
As the robot wheels toward its fifth year of operations on the Red Planet in 2017, the rover is finding patterns of change in rock composition at higher, younger layers of a mountain.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1566, January 1, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A factor favorable for possible life, Curiosity has surveyed ancient Mars sedimentary basins with groundwater finding them chemically active.
Late in 2016, scientists reported that Curiosity has found boron on Mars, a first for this very soluble element. Boron has ended up in calcium sulfate veins found within mudstone layers of the Murray formation on Mars’ lower Mount Sharp.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 1566, January 1, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1566, December, 31, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Posted in Space News
