Science & Technology
Strange green spots on Mars found by NASA’s Perseverance rover

NASA Space Technology

NASA Space Technology An aerial view of Mars showing green spots in the red rocks

NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a rock with strange green spots in it (seen at upper left), and it may hold clues about past water.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA’s Perseverance rover is approaching four years of activity on the Martian surface — and all this time, the rover has been exploring ancient environments, collecting samples, and investigating whether our reddish neighbor may have once supported microbial life

In its latest findingsPerseverance took a nighttime mosaic image of the Malgosa Crest abrasion patch, at a location called the “Serpentine Rapids,” using its SHERLOC WATSON camera. The image revealed white, black and, surprisingly, green-ish spots within the rock. While these rocks’ composition remains a mystery, the unexpected find has scientists excited about what other hidden gems Perseverance might stumble across going forward.

To acquire images from within the rock, Perseverance made an abrasion patch in a rock outcrop named “Wallace Butte.” The abrasion patch measured five centimeters (roughly two inches) in diameter, and the large green spot that can be seen in the upper left of the image is approximately two millimeters (about 0.08 inches) in diameter. The image was acquired on Aug. 19, on Martian day 1,243 of the Mars 2020 mission.

Rocks on Earth that resemble the studied red Martian rocks typically get their color from oxidized iron, the same type of iron that makes our blood red and similar to the oxidized red rust you might find on your car. The green spots that can be seen in Perseverance’s new image are also common in red rocks on Earth, and are formed when liquid water seeps through sediment before hardening into rock. This process supports a chemical reaction that transforms oxidized iron to its reduced form, creating a green hue in the rock.

Related: 32 things on Mars that look like they shouldn’t be there

Sometimes, microbes play a role in this process on Earth, but decaying organic matter can also create the right conditions for the reduction reaction. Chemical interaction between sulfur and iron can also facilitate iron-reduction reactions without the help of microorganisms.

Exactly what type of reaction was responsible for the green spots found in Perseverance’s image will remain a puzzle, however, as there was not enough room for the rover to safely place its arms holding the SHERLOC and PIXL instruments directly on top of the green spot. Thus, the robotic explorer was denied a closer look. The team hopes Perseverance unearths something similar in the future to get a better understanding of what type of chemical reactions are generating these features in the rock.

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Next on the agenda for Perseverance is to ascend to the Crater Lake Romeduring which time it will have to cover steep terrain. Then it will finally leave the crater it has called home for the last two years.

Originally posted on Space.com.

Conor Feehly is a New Zealand-based science writer. He has earned a master’s in science communication from the University of Otago, Dunedin. His writing has appeared in Cosmos Magazine, Discover Magazine and ScienceAlert. His writing largely covers topics relating to neuroscience and psychology, although he also enjoys writing about a number of scientific subjects ranging from astrophysics to archaeology.

Science & Technology
Hubble Spots Active Spiral Galaxy in Telescopium

NASA Space Technology

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an amazing photo of the lens-shaped spiral galaxy IC 4709.

NASA Space Technology IC 4709’s swirling disk filled with stars and dust bands is beautifully captured by Hubble, as is the faint halo surrounding it. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through two filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Koss / A. Barth.

IC 4709’s swirling disk filled with stars and dust bands is beautifully captured by Hubble, as is the faint halo surrounding it. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through two filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Koss / A. Barth.

IC 4709 is located approximately 240 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Telescopium.

Otherwise known as ESO 182-14 or LEDA 61835, this galaxy has a diameter of 60,000 light-years.

IC 4709 was discovered by the American astronomer DeLisle Stewart on September 14, 1901.

The galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus, a compact region at its center within which material is dragged towards a supermassive black hole.

“If IC 4709’s core were just filled with stars, it would not be nearly so bright,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“Instead it hosts a gargantuan black hole, 65 million times the mass of our Sun.”

“A disk of gas spirals around and eventually into this black hole, with the gas crashing together and heating up as it spins.”

“It reaches such high temperatures that it emits vast quantities of electromagnetic radiation, from infrared to visible to ultraviolet light and beyond — in this case including X-rays.”

“IC 4709’s active galactic nucleus is obscured by a lane of dark dust, just visible at the center of the galaxy in the Hubble image, which blocks any optical emission from the nucleus itself,” they added.

“Hubble’s spectacular resolution, however, gives us a detailed view of the interaction between the quite small active galactic nucleus and its host galaxy.”

“This is essential to understanding supermassive black holes in galaxies much more distant than IC 4709, where resolving such fine details is not possible.”

Top Stories
Mars Specific Spots ‘Spiders’ at Outskirts of Martian ‘Inca Metropolis’

Top Stories Tamfitronics

ESA’s Mars Specific spacecraft hang noticed the telltale traces of ‘spiders’ scattered across the southern polar put of Mars.

Top Stories Tamfitronics This portray of the Martian Inca Metropolis became captured by the Excessive Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Specific orbiter on February 27, 2024. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

This portray of the Martian Inca Metropolis became captured by the Excessive Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Specific orbiter on February 27, 2024. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

“In scheme of being true spiders, the Martian ‘spiders’ create when spring sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months,” contributors of the Mars Specific team acknowledged.

“The sunlight hours causes carbon dioxide ice at the bottom of the layer to expose into gas, which therefore builds up and breaks by slabs of overlying ice.”

“The gas bursts free in Martian springtime, dragging dark materials as a lot as the bottom as it goes and shattering layers of ice as a lot as a meter thick.”

“The emerging gas, encumbered with dark dust, shoots up by cracks in the ice in the create of fundamental fountains or geysers, earlier than falling serve down and settling on the bottom.”

This creates dark spots of between Forty five m and 1 km (148-3,280 feet) across.

This linked process creates characteristic ‘spider-shaped’ patterns etched beneath the ice — and so these dark spots are a telltale signal that spiders might well additionally very nicely be lurking below.

“The dark spots might well additionally very nicely be seen all around the Mars Specific portray. Nonetheless, most might well additionally very nicely be seen as little spots in the dark put to the left, which sits excellent at the outskirts of a segment of Mars nicknamed Inca Metropolis,” the researchers acknowledged.

“The reason at the serve of this name is no longer any mystery, with the linear, nearly geometric network of ridges being paying homage to Inca ruins.”

Extra formally is referred to as Narrow LabyrinthInca Metropolis became learned in 1972 by NASA’s Mariner 9 probe.

“We’re unruffled undecided exactly how Inca Metropolis formed. It might well perchance perchance well additionally very nicely be that sand dunes hang grew to turn into to stone over time,” the scientists acknowledged.

“Perchance materials comparable to magma or sand is seeping by fractured sheets of Martian rock. Or, the ridges might well additionally very nicely be ‘eskers,’ winding structures linked to glaciers.”

“The ‘walls’ of Inca Metropolis appear to designate segment of a natty circle, 86 km (Fifty three.5 miles) in diameter.”

The researchers suspect that Inca Metropolis sits within a natty crater that itself formed as a rock from scheme crashed into the planet’s ground.

“This impact most likely brought on faults to ripple by the surrounding frightful, which had been then stuffed with rising lava and hang since ragged away over time,” they acknowledged.

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