NASA's Curiosity rover reaches Mars ridge to study red planet's watery past

After three failed attempts, NASA's Curiosity rover has reached a ridge on Mars, believed to have been partly formed by a muddy landslide which occurred three billion years ago.

A ridge is a narrow, long and elevated structural feature surrounded by steep sides. The MartianRidge holds significance because it might contain some of the earliest evidence of liquid water on the red planet, as it was one of the last geographic features created in the area.

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"It's a thrill to be able to reach out and touch rocks, transported from places high up on Mount Sharp that we'll never be able to visit with Curiosity," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Curiosity rover took a month to climb the Gediz Vallis Ridge. It completed its most challenging climb yet after navigating through a sharp 23-degree incline, slippery sand and rocks around the size of its wheels.

After reaching the ridge in August, the rover spent 11 days capturing the rocks in the area, some of which were as large as cars.

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On August 19, the Curiosity rover clicked 136 pictures of the broader landscape on the ridge and stitched them into a 360-degree mosaic.

Curiosity also captured a separate image in which the upper region of Mount Sharp is visible at a distance behind a prominent butte (flat-topped mountain) in the forepart.

The ridge lies in Curiosity rover's way through the foothills of Mount Sharp, a sharp 3-mile-tall mountain once covered in lakes and streams.

Researchers who studied the composition of many dark rocks and boulders on the ridge found that these rocks originated somewhere on the mountain and skated down with the debris flow. These rocks might enable scientists to study higher mountain regions that Curiosity cannot reach.

The Curiosity rover marked its 11th year on the Red Planet in August 2023. On its journey, Curiosity has been to incredible locations, like Gale Crater, an impact divot with a layered mountain at its centre.

In the upcoming mission, it will attempt to search for a path up a channel above the ridge. Researchers might be able to understand how and where the water flowed down the mountains with its next task.

Although NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have not found evidence that the red planet once supported life, they have helped disclose Mars' more hospital past.

(With inputs from agencies)

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