Strong new evidence of ancient water on Mars

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

After nearly eight years exploring the surface of Mars with the robot rover Opportunity, scientists announced Wednesday they have found "the single most powerful piece of evidence" yet that water once flowed abundantly on the Martian surface.

It must have gushed through underground fractures on the planet billions of years ago, they said, and as the water flowed, it formed a broad range of minerals that the rover has recently discovered near the edge of a crater that Opportunity has just begun exploring.

Led by Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars mission scientists reported their latest findings from Opportunity's 20-mile journey at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union at San Francisco's Moscone Center.

In the course of its travels across the crater-pocked terrain of Mars' southern hemisphere - with many stops to investigate promising sites - Opportunity has already found iron and magnesium minerals that on Earth are known to form in water. But to Squyres and his colleagues, discovering the mineral calcium sulfate - gypsum, as it's most commonly known on Earth - makes it a "slam dunk case" for water.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/07/BART1M9PH1.DTL

[Fearless]

1. When they find Marvin let me know!

[krispos42]

2. Stunning photos from the rover!

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Bad krispos. No water on a Mars bar for you.

(chuckle)

[MikeH]

5. And you know which way to look to find the Milky Way

To find the North Star, you look to the north.

To find the Milky Way, you look the udder way.

[krispos42]

6. *sucks in breath*

Wow, that was physically painful.


:rofl:

[Arctic Dave]

3. Next find, RNA, DNA, microbes?

That would be exciting.

[red dog 1]

7. Too bad they're not interested in sending the rover to the "face" on Mars

[DetlefK]

8. It only looks like a face when perspective and shadows are right.

[Posteritatis]

9. Why would they be? (nt)

[SkyDaddy7]

10. Really? Or were you just making a joke? nt.

[fasttense]

11. Well there certainly is a lot more to the face than most people know about. n/t

[Posteritatis]

14. Such as? (nt)

[baldguy]

12. "Face"? What face?

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast24may_1/

[closeupready]

15. This one, I think:

[baldguy]

17. .

[randome]

13. Enough with gathering 'maybe' evidence.

Why is NASA intent on proving and re-proving the same damned stuff? Send some explorers there and let's get on with it! Colonize the Red Planet already! We're gonna need another one.

[Marthe48]

16. Maybe humans were there once, ruined it, then moved to Earth?

n/t

[LiberalEsto]

18. Does it contain fracking chemicals?

If so, it might explain the current conditions on Mars.