Mount Sharp one was preferred by their readers. Over 2700 people voted, with Aeolis Mons winning by 57% to Mount Sharp's 43%. On December 16, 2014, NASA reported detecting, based on measurements by the "Curiosity" rover, an unusual increase, then decrease, in the amounts of methane in the atmosphere of the planet Mars; as well as, detecting Martian organic chemicals in powder drilled from a rock by the "Curiosity" rover. Also, based on deuterium to hydrogen ratio studies, much of the water at Gale Crater on Mars was found to have been lost during ancient times, before the lakebed in the crater
Curiosity (rover) California, where she signed her name directly onto the rover as it was being assembled. Ma wrote in her winning essay: "Curiosity" landed in Quad 51 (nicknamed Yellowknife) of Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater. The landing site coordinates are: . The location has been named Bradbury Landing in honor of science fiction author Ray Bradbury. Gale crater, an estimated 3.5 to 3.8 billion-year-old impact crater, is hypothesized to have first been gradually filled in by sediments; first water-deposited, and then wind-deposited, possibly until it was completely covered. Wind erosion then scoured out the sediments, leaving an isolated mountain, Aeolis Mons