00:05The Curiosity rover has discovered lots of evidence of ancient lakes on Mars,
00:10but what we saw in this panorama surprised us.
00:14Curiosity is currently exploring Mount Sharp.
00:17You can see the upper part of the mountain here.
00:20The whole mountain is three miles tall, but we're down in the foothills.
00:25In 2022, the rover started exploring a unique feature on Mars
00:29called the Marker Band.
00:32It's a dark, thin layer of rock that stands out from the layers above and below it.
00:37We first saw it in orbiter images years before we launched.
00:42What created this winding layer of hard rock is a mystery,
00:46but Curiosity can help us understand what formed the Marker Band.
00:52We first discovered that the rocks within the Marker Band are really hard.
00:56Curiosity has faced some challenges drilling into them.
01:00Here's two of our attempts.
01:02But we might find a softer spot on the road ahead.
01:08Nearby, we found an exciting scientific clue.
01:12These rippled textures were created billions of years ago by waves in a shallow lake.
01:20We've climbed through many lake deposits during our mission, but have never seen wave ripples this clearly.
01:30This was especially surprising since the area we're in probably formed at a time when Mars was becoming more dry.
01:42Just above the rippled layer is another intriguing clue.
01:46These rocks have a very repetitive pattern in their spacing and thickness.
01:51We see lots of layers on Mars, but they're rarely this regular.
01:55We're not sure what caused this rhythmic pattern.
01:58Weather or climate cycles, like dust storms happening at periodic intervals, are possible explanations.
02:16Look at these gorgeous layered hills and cliffs that Curiosity is headed toward.
02:21If this was on Earth, we'd probably make it a national park.
02:28In the distance here, we can see debris in a valley called Geddes Vallis.
02:33This was washed down here by wet landslides very late in Mount Sharp's history.
02:39This landslide debris is probably the most recent evidence of water that we'll ever see.
02:44It will allow us to study layers higher up on Mount Sharp that we can't reach since they're so far
02:50up the mountain.
02:54Curiosity has driven through some amazing scenery, and we've learned so much about Mars' ancient climate.
03:00But even after 10 years, there's so much more to explore.
03:03We'll see you next time.
03:06We'll see you next time.
03:08Bye.
03:09Bye.
03:10Bye.
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