A photo from open sources
American rover Curiosity mapped winds in Gale Crater using the REMS meteorological tool and confirmed that the atmosphere of Mars is his only “shield” from cosmic radiation, participants in a press conference in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs on Thursday.
A photo from open sources
“Judging by the shape of Gale Crater, we expected winds to blow in in two main directions – towards and from Mount Sharp. It turned out that the winds were blowing in a completely different direction – along the edges of the crater, “said meteorologist Clara Newman (Clara Newman) from the research company Ashima Research in Pasadena (USA). Scientific team working with a climatological tool REMS compiled this map based on three months of observations changes in the direction of the wind in Gale Crater, where he committed Curiosity rover landing in early August. In addition to data on wind behavior, scientists have found many other interesting the details that make the weather of Mars completely unlike earthly. In particular, the difference in pressure between daytime and nighttime the clock on Mars turned out to be very large – about 10% between peak values day and night. Interesting that the night pressure on the red the planet is noticeably higher than daytime. Scientists attribute this to the fact that in the afternoon, the thin atmosphere of Mars warms up under the action of the sun’s rays and expands, due to which the pressure drops sharply. Moreover, the average pressure between August and November is significantly increased – the difference between monthly average values is about 80-100 pascal. Climatologists attribute such growth to the fact that spring is coming in the southern hemisphere of Mars, and the polar cap of ice, consisting mainly of frozen carbon dioxide, gradually melts. As a result, the atmosphere of the red planet is gradually “growing.” As Don Hassler from Southwest noted Research Institute in Boulder (USA) in charge of the operation of the radiation detector RAD on board the rover, this device unexpectedly emerged as another source of climate information. According to him, the radiometer can be used as a barometer, since the radioactivity of air is strictly dependent on the density Martian atmosphere at the current time. So, at high pressure radioactivity was relatively low, and at low pressure – relatively high. This is because the atmosphere is red planet is the only shield from cosmic radiation. The atmosphere of Mars does not have a strong magnetic field, like Earth, which allows charged particles to reach it unhindered surface. Fluctuations recorded by the RAD device confirm that on Mars there are no other means of protection from space radiation. Curiosity is currently located in a cluster of sand and Martian soil that NASA scientists dubbed “rocky nest. “According to the deputy lead researcher Ashios Vasavada’s Curiosity Project California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Mars rover completed the analysis of soil samples in a SAM spectrometer and transmitted to ground data received by this device. Results of this analysis will be published shortly.
NASA Mars Time USA Mars Rover Curiosity
