Curiosity Rover’s Quest to Solve Mount Sharp Riddle on Mars

Scientists say they might have an explanation for the the huge mountain observed at Curiosity rovers landing site on Mars at the Gale crater.

The massive rocky jutting drew the attention of the scientists when NASA's Curiosity rover , a probe sent to Mars to conduct  experiments and search for clues for any form of life, landed on Gale.

After two years the Curiosity is climbing the mountain also called Mount Sharp,which is a layered sedimentary formation encompassing the different time frames, a sort of geographical road map of the history of Mars covering millions of years. The mountain is almost 5 kms high and experts believe that strong winds dug out the surrounding plains to expose the mountain.

The rover observed layers of banded segments over the slopes of the rock, which they believe are markings of ancient river flows and scientists say they all tilt toward the center of the mountain and may have ended as a static lake.

Scientists through the probe hope to find out why  Mars, which was once believed to be wetter and warmer turned dry and freezing

Ancient Mars, says the Curiosity team, must have enjoyed a vigorous global hydrological cycle, involving rains or snows, to maintain such humid conditions, reports the BBC

"If we have a long-standing lake for millions of years, the atmospheric humidity practically requires a standing body of water like an ocean to keep Gale from evaporating," said Dr Ashwin Vasavada, the Curiosity deputy project scientist, to BBC News.

Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 and started exploring a section named Yellowknife Bay and found evidence that  Gale was once habitable, perhaps a freshwater lake.

Till date the rover, which is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has driven more than six miles, taken more than 104,000  and used laser to dig hole in rocks and dirt to find their compositions.

The team hopes to find how persistent the  water activity was through time  and how the temperature changed from hot to freezing.