Crater was Shaped by Wind and Water, Mars Rover Data Shows
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: May 25, 2009
Those two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have provided much information about the planet in the five years they’ve been rolling around the surface.
Most of the data relates to the central question of the role water might have played in the planet’s past, and a new paper in Science, describing Opportunity’s exploration of Victoria Crater in Meridiani Planum, a plain near the equator, is no exception.
Copyright 2009The New York Times Company
The paper, by Steven W. Squyres, a Cornell astronomer, and more than 30 colleagues, summarizes information that has been released over the past several years, and can itself be summarized in two words — wet and windy. As in, water and wind have altered the terrain around the crater as they have done elsewhere, suggesting that the processes are regional in scope.
The impact that formed the crater (which was originally about 2,000 feet in diameter) ejected sedimentary rocks and exposed layers of sediment along the rim. But there is much evidence of wind erosion — the crater has widened to about 2,500 feet, forming indentations and promontories along the rim, and ejected rocks outside have been planed down, leaving smooth terrain.
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By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: May 25, 2009
Those two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have provided much information about the planet in the five years they’ve been rolling around the surface.
Most of the data relates to the central question of the role water might have played in the planet’s past, and a new paper in Science, describing Opportunity’s exploration of Victoria Crater in Meridiani Planum, a plain near the equator, is no exception.
Copyright 2009The New York Times Company
The paper, by Steven W. Squyres, a Cornell astronomer, and more than 30 colleagues, summarizes information that has been released over the past several years, and can itself be summarized in two words — wet and windy. As in, water and wind have altered the terrain around the crater as they have done elsewhere, suggesting that the processes are regional in scope.
The impact that formed the crater (which was originally about 2,000 feet in diameter) ejected sedimentary rocks and exposed layers of sediment along the rim. But there is much evidence of wind erosion — the crater has widened to about 2,500 feet, forming indentations and promontories along the rim, and ejected rocks outside have been planed down, leaving smooth terrain.
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