NASA robot enters the alien 'river of life'

According to NASA, in the 12th year of the mission, the Mars warrior Curiosity will enter an area that scientists believe is the river bed of an ancient river, expected to contain evidence of the living.

It is a land unexplored by any exploration ship, called Gediz Vallis, shaped like winding channels and full of pebbles.

According to Space.com, scientists believe this area could help explain how the Martian terrain formed in the first place.

Gediz Vallis snakes its way through Mount Sharp, an area of ​​exciting mountain terrain. Billions of years ago, this mountain was believed to be a fertile, wet land.

Over time, Mars dried up, and the remaining wind and water eroded the mountain into the layered terrain that Curiosity once recorded.

It is the area's breathtaking landscape that makes scientists believe that a natural phenomenon helped create Gediz Vallis.

It is possible that this ancient river originated from landslides from the mountains, and it is also possible that it was created by water currents, which is most attractive to astrobiologists.

"If the river or the debris pile inside it was formed by liquid water that would be really interesting. It would mean that after a long period of dryness, the water has returned in a larger stream" - scientist said Ashwin Vasavada from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Most importantly, the appearance of an ancient river in the middle of a fertile terrain means the opportunity for life to exist.

NASA hopes Curiosity can find evidence of alien life that once existed in this area, or if luckier, something that is still alive.

Curiosity is a robotic rover designed to hunt for life. Curiosity's original mission lasted only two years, but it has surprisingly endured and entered its 12th year of extended mission.

Samuel Daniel

Update 05 April 2024