Chuang, Che-Kuang
In 2012, Curiosity
has begun its own mission to decide whether Mars ever support life. And now, it
has gotten some positive results.
Curiosity
successfully landed on Gale Crater of Mars in August 2, 2012. At the very begging, the scientists
of NASA chose this site for reasons. Through the photos took by the former
missions and space telescope, they think that water once flowed on this area; and
soon that this speculation was proved by the investigation of Curiosity. Because
of that, they strongly believed that there was a chance to find the ingredients
of life in this area. And they are right again.
In the February
2013, Curiosity has found some ingredients which are the necessary materials to
support life at Gale Crater-be precisely, in Yellowknife Bay, one of the most
ancient landscapes of Mars. The scientists used the drill of Curiosity to penetrate
the rock of this site. Then the dust was collected from the drill and was put into
the micro chemistry lab in Curiosity. Bingo!! That was exactly the things which
they expected for-the material of a habitable environment.
Through analyzing the
dust from the drill, they have found all the prerequisites of life, including
sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. These ingredients indicated that
this place was once a near neutral environment with slightly salty liquid
water. In the other word, the Yellowknife Bay was once an environment which suited
for life.
Although they have
not yet find the direct evidence of life on Mars and are unable to prove that
life once existed on Mars just like those science fiction described, at least
now they could confirm that the ingredients of habitable environments once
presented on Mars. As for the Martians and Aliens which those SF fans were
looking for? Well, we will just have to wait and see.
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