Mount Sharp
Mount Sharp, officially Aeolis Mons (/ˈiːəlɪs mɒnz/), is a mountain on 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. Its ID in the United States Geological Survey's Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature is 15000.
The rover Curiosity landed on August 6, 2012, near the base of Aeolis Mons. | |
| Location | Gale crater on Mars |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 5.08°S 137.85°E |
| Peak | Aeolis Mons – 5.5 km (3.4 mi) 18,045 ft (5,500 m) |
| Discoverer | NASA in the 1970s |
| Eponym | Aeolis Mons – Aeolis albedo feature Mount Sharp – Robert P. Sharp (1911–2004) |
On August 6, 2012, Curiosity (the Mars Science Laboratory rover) landed in "Yellowknife" Quad 51 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 an 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 the rover 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 Curiosity had reached Aeolis Mons, the rover mission's long-term prime destination. Possible recurrent slope lineae, wet brine flows, were reported on Mount Sharp near Curiosity in 2015. In June 2017, NASA reported that an ancient striated lake had existed in Gale crater that could have been favorable for microbial life.