How Odyssey research MarsOdyssey carries three science devices.
Its radiation detector, the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment
(MARIE), collected 2 years’ value of knowledge earlier than failing in 2003. Our
Sun and different stars emit radiation that may rip by way of human cells,
inflicting most cancers and different well being issues.On Earth, our planet’s magnetic discipline deflects the radioactive
charged particles hurtling at us from house. Mars has no magnetic discipline,
making a hazard for human explorers that we want to perceive and
mitigate.Ironically, that very same radiation additionally helps scientists decide what
Mars’ floor is manufactured from. Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS)
measures high-energy waves and subatomic particles produced when
radiation strikes the floor. The waves and particles include distinctive
signatures of the rocks they got here from, which permits scientists to map
the weather that make up the Martian floor and discover reservoirs of ice
buried simply beneath the highest layer of soil.Another instrument, the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS),
takes pictures of Mars’ floor in seen and infrared wavelengths,
permitting researchers to map the planet’s terrain and work out what
minerals make up totally different landforms. These pictures have been key to discovering a
touchdown website for NASA’s Curiosity rover the place the rocks appeared to
have shaped in water.
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