Can Curiosity discover new things about Mars?

Curiosity means ‘A strong desire to know or learn something’. It indicates eagerness to know about something too. That’s the reason why NASA gave this strange name to robotic rover for exploring new things about Mars. It has successfully landed in Gale Crater of Mars in 2012 and since then we have been eagerly waiting for every bit of new information that Curiosity gathers from Mars.

Mars – the fourth planet of Solar system and the only planet that’s visible to human eyes. It was given the name of Greek war god and since it has close resemblance to earth’s characteristics, it’s believed that life did existed in Mars. Mercury is the only planet of solar system smaller than mars. It is 22.79 crore km away from sun and its one year is equivalent to 687 days of earth. One day is equivalent to 24 hours and 37 minutes. It’s believed that before 1 million year, Mars surface was covered with water.  

The main purpose of Mars Exploration Program is to know if life was present in Mars and if it could support life in future. Already many such explorations have left a lot of unanswered questions. Can Curiosity fill those blanks? Only thing we can do is to wait and expect for some good and sensational news.

Methane is present; but is life present? 

Methane is found abundantly in mars. Earlier it was believed that asteroids were behind this. But scientists of Imperial College, London have found something else. As methane was formed due to reactions of asteroids, more chances are there to find methane in atmosphere. Another assumption is that it is through the metabolic activities of certain microorganisms present on Mars’ surface or through the friction that exists between volcano and water content. They are all just assumptions and what we can do is to wait for the results that curiosity gives us, today or tomorrow.

Though contents of water and oxygen are scarce scientists still believe that life do exist in Mars, though as a dew drop!

Image source: Wikipedia

To read about Kalpana’s last journey to space: Click here.