Submitted by Pendekar Timur: A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's rover Spirit is so rich in silica that it may provide some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now. The processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water. Members of the rover science team heard from a colleague during a recent teleconference that the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, a chemical analyzer at the end of Spirit's arm, hadmeasured a composition of about 90 percent pure silica for this soil.
"You could hear people gasp in astonishment," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the Mars rovers' science instruments. "This is a remarkable discovery. And the fact that we found something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more remarkable. It makes you wonder what else is still out there." Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer observed the patch, and Steve Ruff of Arizona State University, Tempe, noticed that its spectrumshowed a high silica content. The team has laid out plans for further study of the soil patch and surrounding deposits. Exploring a low range of hills inside a Connecticut-sized basin named Gusev Crater, Spirit had previously found other indicators of long-ago water at the site, such as patches of water-bearing, sulfur-rich soil; alteration of minerals; and evidence of explosive volcanism.
View: Full Article | Source: Physorg
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Posted on Wednesday, May 23 - 2007
Views : 6025
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Reference : Miscellaneous, Mysteries of Mars
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Skull spotted on Mars
The log on Mars - explained
ESA prepares for manned mission to Mars
Russia plans to send monkey to Mars
Buzz Aldrin urges US to land on Mars
Europes Mars missions get final go-ahead
Massive blast created Mars moon
Synthetic life could be used on trips to Mars