On the way to the place called Glenelg, the Mars Rover Curiosity stopped to study a small pyramid-shaped rock. Obviously, it’s a natural formation so there’s no danger that some ancient Egyptian god will come out to come to destroy the Earth. 😉 This rock was named Jake Matijevic after Jacob Matijevic, a chief engineer of the Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity Project who passed away on August 20. Matijevic was also one of the engineers of the previous NASA rovers missions: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity.
The rock Jake Matijevic is the size of a football and will be studied using the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), one of the spectrometers of the Mars Rover Curiosity, which emits alpha particles (or nuclei of helium atoms) and X-rays allow you to make accurate measurements of its chemical composition.
After completing the study of this peculiar rock, the Mars Rover Curiosity will resume its journey to Glenelg, where three different types of terrain intersect. One of them, lighter-toned, should be particularly interesting because it retains the heat absorbed during the day until late at night and this suggests that its composition is unusual.
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Over the last week, the Mars Rover Curiosity has also worked to its astronomical mission taking pictures with its Mast Camera (Mastcam) of the two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, as they passed in front of the Sun. Those observations are intended to use the moons to gain more indirect information on the inside of Mars. In fact, the differences in the internal structure of the red planet cause small variations in its gravity which have an effect on its interaction with Deimos and Phobos.
Those observations of the moons of Mars certainly cann’t give results as accurate as those of the GRAIL space probes on the Moon but they certainly help. The Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity have made similar observations over the years they spent on Mars and Opportunity is expected to take more of them in the coming days.
Deimos is slowly moving away from Mars. On the contrary, Phobos’s orbit is slowly decaying and between 10 and 15 million years is expected to get so close to Mars that it will be destroyed by its gravity. Therefore, the Mars Rovers have plenty of time to complete their missions before that event but in the meantime we might at last be going to Mars and use the minerals of these two moons.
