{"id":23256,"date":"2021-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&#038;p=23256"},"modified":"2021-10-22T11:42:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:42:18","slug":"origin-of-curiosity-site-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2021\/09\/16\/origin-of-curiosity-site-in-doubt\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin of Curiosity site in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center intro\">New research suggests that region is formed by sand and silt deposited by the wind<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">For the last nine years. NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars\u2019s Gale crater under the belief the region was once a lake bed, but a new study from the Faculty of Science at Hong Kong University suggests this might not be the case.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Instead, the research suggests that the region was formed by sand and silt deposited by the wind, which was then soaked by ancient rainfall. The study found that immobile elements \u2013 meaning those that stay in the rock rather than dissolving in water \u2013 are richer at higher elevations, which is normally seen in wind-blown soils rather than lake deposits. There also appears to be depleted iron levels, suggesting the atmosphere was more like an arid desert than a wet lake.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image article-in-image photo\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1040\" height=\"764\" src=\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-23255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813.jpg 1040w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-1024x752.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-768x564.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1040px) 100vw, 1040px\" \/><figcaption>Could the sediments seen here be the result of wind rather than water?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Planetary geologists aren\u2019t quite willing to throw away everything they know about the<span> crater just yet, and will continue to investigate.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">\u201cThe data presents challenges to existing hypotheses for both the depositional environment of these rock formations and the atmospheric conditions they formed after,\u201d says Hong Kong University\u2019s Ryan McKenzie. \u201cThis work will inspire new and exciting directions for future research.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\">http:\/\/mars.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:10px\">IMAGES: NASA\/JPL-CALTECH\/MSSS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research suggests that region is formed by sand and silt deposited by the wind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":23255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"14","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"14","purple_seq_number":"3","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"3","purple_source_article":"article_14-3.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_14-3.xml","purple_source_issue":"October-2021","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"October-2021","purple_external_id":"October-2021-14-3","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"October-2021-14-3","purple_issue_code":"|0000086545||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086545||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.197","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.197","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.197","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.197","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813.jpg",1040,764,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-300x220.jpg",300,220,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-768x564.jpg",768,564,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813-1024x752.jpg",800,588,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813.jpg",1040,764,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/09\/ca8025cd-e75c-4689-acec-fdf2d4628813.jpg",1040,764,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"New research suggests that region is formed by sand and silt deposited by the wind","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23256"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24681,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23256\/revisions\/24681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}