Out-of-this-world connection
Evidence of ancient groundwater discovered in Yellowknife Bay on Mars; NWT astronomers using link to increase public interest in space
Randi Beers
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 26, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife Bay on Mars is looking a little more similar to its earthly counterpart after geological evidence of groundwater was discovered by the Mars Curiosity Rover earlier this month.
NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover captures a selfie to mark a full Martian year – 687 Earth days – spent exploring the Red Planet. The rover recently discovered evidence groundwater once flowed in an area called Yellowknife Bay, which is named after its earthly counterpart on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. - photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS |
The scientific discovery inside a crater 400 million kilometres away provides valuable outreach for astronomers here on Earth, says Mike Couvrette, chairperson of the Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society, based in Fort Smith.
"(The Curiosity Rover) has been an item of interest - I think part of that is due to its connection to the NWT - that it landed in Yellowknife Bay," said Couvrette.
"It's one of those items that is an ongoing mission that we can talk to people about and say we're not just a bunch of geeks with our eyeballs glued to a telescope."
Yellowknifer previously reported NASA scientists named the region after Northwest Territories' own Yellowknife partly because rocks found near the NWT capital area are approximately the same age as rocks found in Yellowknife Bay, Mars.
Couvrette said he hopes the astronomical society will be able to hold evening talks next spring about what Curiosity's discovers over this winter.
The talks are held in Fort Smith, but Couvrette says there are many ways Yellowknifers can get involved in his society.
"We do have a few members in Yellowknife and we do have a website that I try and update once per month," he said.
"As well, we do have an active Facebook group we all post to on a regular basis."
The Mars Curiosity Rover carries a camera, called the ChemCam, that is able to identify the chemical properties of its environment. The camera found Yellowknife Bay contains veins of calcium sulfate, a light material that runs through its compact sedimentary rock. Using the rover, scientists studied how these veins could have been created and determined groundwater could have built up enough pressure to open these cracks and deposit the calcium sulfate.
This process, according to a blog post on NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, would have happened persistently over a long period of time.
Scientists believe water is one of the fundamental building blocks required to create life as we know it, so the possibility water once flowed on Mars has many astronomers, including Couvrette, excited.
"I think it's really the type of thing that emphasizes the potential for life outside our little dome here," he said.
"It's phenomenal, just because I think it also emphasizes how fortunate we are of circumstance. Some 3.7 billion years ago apparently the same conditions existed on Mars (as on Earth) and because of some minor difference, it's now a dead planet."
The rover is now collecting rock samples at the base of Mount Sharp, which is adjacent
to Yellowknife Bay.
