The Geology of Mars: Discoveries by Spirit and Opportunity – Part 1
Alister Cruickshanks (UK) Fig. 1. View of Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy of © NASA/JPL-Caltech. It is perhaps one of the most exciting explorations in recent years – NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers have changed our views of the red planet and re-written textbooks. In the past, researching and mapping the geology of Mars has seemed something that geologists could only dream of doing. However, while geologists around the world have been busy studying rocks here on Earth, two robots have been busy at work, carrying out their own studies on Mars. Their findings have confirmed a previous theory that Mars had an active geological past and have provided evidence of water – a fundamental building block of life. In the first and second parts of this article, I will examine the geological findings by one of the robots, Spirit. In the third and fourth parts, I will examine findings by Spirit’s twin, Opportunity. Facts about Mars Before looking at their recent geological discoveries, it is worth looking at the basic facts about Mars and the two robots that keep changing our understanding of the planet. Mars is the fourth planet from our Sun and is, on average, 78.3 million km from Earth and 227.9 million km from the sun. This might seem like an extraordinarily large distance but, as space goes, it is actually very close. It has an egg-shaped orbit and, at its nearest to the sun, is 206.6 million km away and, at its … Read More