Gusev (Martian crater)

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The Gusev Crater is a 166 km diameter crater on the planet Mars. He got from the IAU in 1976 after the Russian astronomer Matvei Gusev Matveyitch ( 1826-1866 ) His name.

Location

The coordinates of this Martian crater read 14.6 ° South and 175.4 ° East ( 184.6 ° West ). At its northern end is adjacent the lowlands Elysium Planitia, in the south, close the Highlanders Terra Cimmeria and Terra Sirenum to.

Formation

The Gusev crater formed by the impact of asteroids around 3.5 billion years ago. According to the majority of scientists arrived in the following years by the leading- from the South Canyon Ma'adim Vallis an ice- water mixture or liquid water in the crater. Perhaps the Gusev Crater was even completely submerged in earlier times.

Research

On 4 January 2004, the U.S. Mars rover Spirit landed in Gusev Crater. In the course of the mission found evidence of an earlier Spirit weathering of rocks by liquid water. This was shown for example by the existence of the iron mineral goethite, which was detected with the Mössbauer spectrometer on board of Spirit. Whether the water appeared on the surface or as groundwater, is still an open question.

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