NASA Rover Finds Convincing Evidence of Water on Ancient Mars
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 07 December 2011 Time: 09:07 PM ET
This color view of a mineral vein called "Homestake" comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU
SAN FRANCISCO — A well-traveled NASA Mars rover has found some of the best evidence yet that water flowed on the Red Planet's surface long ago, researchers announced today (Dec. 7).CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU
The Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars nearly eight years ago, has discovered a thin, bright mineral vein along the rim of a huge crater called Endeavour. This mineral is almost certainly gypsum that was deposited by liquid water billions of years ago, researchers said.
...After analyzing the vein with Opportunity's cameras and X-ray spectrometer last month, researchers concluded that it is gypsum, a hydrated calcium sulfate that on Earth is used to make drywall and plaster of Paris. The vein likely formed right where Opportunity found it, researchers said.
"There was a fracture in the rock, water flowed through it, gypsum was precipitated from the water. End of story," Squyres said. "There's no ambiguity about this, and this is what makes it so cool..."
Additional Resource:
[Rubaiat`s Blog] Post (11/02/11): NASA Study of Clays Suggests Watery Mars Underground
finding the hematite mineral was enough proof and the silicates as well but the gypsum adds for proof, so YES there was oceans and rivers on Mars, the question NOW is whether there was LIFE on Mars?
ReplyDeleteI whole heartily support your idea of a sample return mission from Mars, that will be the best way to understand Martian geology and astrobiology...too bad for the Russian craft to Phobos