NASA CURIOSITY MISSION (since 2012)
Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp (5, 500 m - 18, 000 ft)
Mars
3 pictures of Aeolis Mons taken by NASA Curiosity Rover & Curiosity team :
1. Aeolis Mons photographed by Curiosity Rover on September 9, 2012
2. Aeolis Mons photographed by Curiosity Rover on September 20, 2012
3. Aeolis Mons photographed by Curiosity Rover on August 6, 2012
(Click images to enlarge)
The mountain
Aeolis Mons (5, 500 m - 18, 000 ft) also called Mount Sharp is a mountain on the surface of the planet Mars. It forms the central peak within Gale crater and is located around 5.08°S 137.85°E, rising 5.5 km (18,000 ft) high from the valley floor. Aeolis Mons is about the same height as Mons Huygens, the tallest lunar mountain, and taller than Mons Hadley visited by Apollo 15. The tallest mountain known in the Solar System is in Rheasilvia crater on the asteroid Vesta, which contains a central mound that rises 22 km or 22.000 m - 14 mi or 72,000 ft high.Olympus Mons on Mars is nearly the same height, at 21.9 km (13.6 mi; 72,000 ft) high.
In comparison, Mount Everest / Chomolunga rises to 8.8 km -29,000 ft altitude above sea level, but is only 4.6 km - 15,000 ft base-to-peak. Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro is about 5.9 km - 19,000 ft altitude above sea level also 4.6 km base-to-peak. America's Denali, also known as Mount McKinley, has a base-to-peak of 5.5 km -18,000 ft. The Franco-Italian Mont Blanc/Monte Bianco is 4.8 km -16,000 ft in altitude above sea level. Mount Fuji, which overlooks Tokyo, Japan, is about 3.8 km -12,000 ft altitude. Compared to the Andes, Aeolis Mons would rank outside the hundred tallest peaks, being roughly the same height as Argentina's Cerro Pajonal; the peak is higher than any above sea level in Oceania, but base-to peak it is considerably shorter than Hawaii's Mauna Kea and its neighbors.
Discovered in the 1970s by NAS, the mountain remained nameless for perhaps 40 years. When it became a likely landing site, it was given various labels; for example, in 2010 a NASA photo caption called it "Gale crater mound". In March 2012, NASA unofficially named it "Mount Sharp", for American geologist Robert P. Sharp. The International Astronomical Union, which is responsible for planetary nomenclature for its participants, names large Martian mountains after the Classical albedo feature in which it is located, not for people. In May 2012 the IAU thus named the mountain Aeolis Mons, and gave the name Aeolis Palus to the crater floor plain between the northern wall of Gale and the northern foothills of the mountain. Despite the official name, NASA and the ESA continue to refer to the mountain as "Mount Sharp" in press conferences and press releases
Aeolis is the ancient name of the Izmir region in western Turkey.
The NASA mission
On August 6, 2012, Curiosity (the Mars Science Laboratory rover) landed in "Yellowknife" Quad of Aeolis Palus, next to the mountain. 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 8 km (5.0 mi) 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 January 20, 2017, Curiosity has been on the planet Mars for 1585 sols (1628 days) since landing on August 6, 2012.
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