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Mount Sharp, officially Aeolis Mons (), is a mountain on Mars. It forms the central peak within Gale crater and is located around , rising high from the valley floor. It is the 15000th named feature in the ''Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature''.〔(Aeolis Mons )〕 ''Curiosity'' (the Mars Science Laboratory rover) landed in "Yellowknife" ''Quad 51'' of Aeolis Palus, next to the mountain, on August 6, 2012. NASA named the landing site Bradbury Landing on August 22, 2012. Aeolis Mons is a primary goal for scientific study.〔 〕 On June 5, 2013, NASA announced that ''Curiosity'' would begin a journey from the Glenelg area to the base of Aeolis Mons. On November 13, 2013, NASA announced that an entryway ''Curiosity'' would traverse on its way to Aeolis Mons was to be named "Murray Buttes", in honor of planetary scientist Bruce C. Murray (1931–2013). The trip was expected to take about a year and would include stops along the way to study the local terrain. On September 11, 2014, NASA announced that the ''Curiosity'' rover had reached Aeolis Mons, the rover mission's long-term prime destination. On October 5, 2015, possible recurrent slope lineae, wet brine flows, were reported on Mount Sharp near ''Curiosity''. As of , , ''Curiosity'' has been on the planet Mars for sols ( days) since landing on August 6, 2012. ''(See Current status.)'' ==Formation== The mountain appears to be an enormous mound of eroded sedimentary layers sitting on the central peak of Gale. It rises above the northern crater floor and above the southern crater floor, higher than the southern crater rim. The sediments may have been laid down over an interval of 2 billion years,〔 〕 and may have once completely filled the crater. Some of the lower sediment layers may have originally been deposited on a lake bed,〔 while observations of possibly cross-bedded strata in the upper mound suggest aeolian processes.〔 〕 However, this issue is debated,〔 〕〔 〕 and the origin of the lower layers remains unclear.〔 If katabatic wind deposition played the predominant role in the emplacement of the sediments, as suggested by reported 3 degree radial slopes of the mound's layers, erosion would have come into play largely to place an upper limit on the mound's growth. On December 8, 2014, a panel of NASA scientists discussed ((archive 62:03) ) the latest observations of ''Curiosity'' about how water may have helped shape the landscape of Mars, including Aeolis Mons, and had a climate long ago that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many Martian locations. On October 8, 2015, NASA confirmed that lakes and streams existed in Gale crater 3.3 - 3.8 billion years ago delivering sediments to build up the lower layers of Mount Sharp. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mount Sharp」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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