Page 14 - Rock Samples News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> bill: an age old mystery. scientists uncovered a rock sample that they expect 65 million. no one was there to see it. so the idea is the asteroid hit wiped out the dinosaurs. >> this is what we've learned since we were little kids in school. a life eliminating event. off mexico's peninsula they've been drilling into the crater they assumed 66 million years ago is where we got hit by an asteroid. they dug several miles into this crater and pulled up -- it is basically a timeline that you get back from nature when you drill that deeply into the sea bed. you get to see all the different things...

Good at being able to move that much. you wanted to reach down to the surface without having to bend over too much. >> reporter: rock samples are being opened for the first time. they have been totally vacuum sealed. >> one of the things we know in science is we will always no more in the future so they built that in, they started and ended experiment and did research with those rocks as soon as they came back but they held some back with the idea that 50 years from now we will have new techniques so being able to open those up for research now allows people to continue to learn from the scien...

To test these theories the scientists in parts combining their mathematical models with data from rock samples that are millions of years old. using bagnet measurements the researches can detect when and how often such poll reversals have taken place up to now. they have discovered that they have taken place repeatedly. north and south poles have flipped at regular intervals and then flipped back again. over the last several million years there was a polar reversal about every five hundred thousand years or so the last was about seven hundred fifty thousand years ago so we're a bit overdue in ...

To test these theories the scientists in parts combining their mathematical models with data from rock samples that are millions of years old. using bagnet measurements the researches can detect when and how often such poll reversals have taken place up to now. they have discovered that they have taken place repeatedly magnetic north and south poles have flipped at regular intervals and then flipped back again. over the last several million years there was a polar reversal about every five hundred thousand years or so the last was about seven hundred fifty thousand years ago so we're a bit ove...

Spot more than 34 million miles where it began. major achievement in the study came eight months in digging through soil and rock samples they uncovered evidence of a streambed. so there could have been the basis for life on mars, more than 2 billion years ago. microbes perhaps in the streambed. major achievements already in years one for this rover, bill. bill: what is their sense how much longer this thing lasts? first you have to get touchdown. you have got to get a signal back. enough to keep it operating. they have done that so well, better than ever, steve. >> reporter: it has really bee...