Monday 7th January 2013 Sol 150

The recent images of sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife are creating a lot of interest within and beyond the MSL science team.  Tomorrow the BBC Stargazing Live event is hosting some of its regional events at the University of Leicester.  I will be giving one of the talks (about MSL).  Here is the link:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/stargazing-live

As I was planning this talk I looked up the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Mars.  The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica edition was the Wikipedia of its day. 

“His [Lowell’s] explanation is that they indicate the existence of irrigating canals which carry the water produced annually by the melting of the polar snows to every part of the planet… What we really see as dark lines are broad strips of vegetation, produced by artificial cultivation.”

The article refers to Percival Lowell’s description of canals on Mars.  As we have obtained better resolution images of Mars we have dropped that theory!  Curiosity continues  this tradition of getting better resolution images and we are now getting an important new insight into the sedimentary processes that have helped shape Mars and reflect its changing environment from ‘warm and wet’ to today’s cold and dry environment.