Rover finds proof of water on Mars

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070522/ap_on_sc/mars_rovers

The Mars rover Spirit has uncovered the strongest evidence yet that the planet used to be wetter than previously thought, scientists reported Monday.

The robot analyzed a patch of soil in Gusev Crater and found it unusually rich in silica. The presence of water would have been necessary to produce such a large silica deposit, scientists said.

"This is a remarkable discovery," principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University said in a statement. "It makes you wonder what else is still out there."

Spirit previously found clues of ancient water in the crater through the presence of sulfur-rich soil, water-altered minerals and explosive volcanism. But the latest find is compelling because of the high silica content, researchers said, raising the possibility that conditions may have been favorable for the emergence of primitive life.

It's unclear how the silica deposit formed. One possibility is that the soil mixed with acid vapors in the presence of water. Others believe the deposit was created from water in a hot spring surrounding.

The durable Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, have been working on overtime since completing their primary, three-month mission in 2004.

For eight months, Opportunity has explored the rim of Victoria Crater on the opposite side of the planet. Scientists are looking for a safe opening to send the rover in.

Raph's girl note: It's amazing that these rovers are still working after all this time. A shame they're destroyed in the Transformers movie. :lol:

[Mecha Cow]

Didn't we already discover this years ago?

[Voltron]

I believe that this is evidence for liquid water, not the water ice found at the polar caps of Mars.

This goes towards supporting the idea that Mars was once a temperate planet, which could have supported life.

Now, of course, it doesn't do us much good. Kind of like seeing a hot woman in a photo album from 1930, then going to meet her today and saying, "Well, she might have been good looking in 1930, but now she's just dead."

[iris]

Didn't we already discover this years ago?
Like Voltron said, there's frozen water at the caps, and we also found evidence of liquid water having been on the surface of Mars and frozen in the ground. I think I remember something about what looked like dried rivulets around impact craters, where the ground had been heated by the impact and water had run down into the crater.

This might be related to that, seeing as the silica deposit was in a crater. Or not. I'm no geologist. :p

[RaphistheBest]

Little machines do some much for us.:anime: Whenever they found the icecaps of Mars was started to wonder when they would find something like this. Finally!:lol:

[Scandia]

Bacteria have been found in Mars.

Does this affect my religious ideals? Not in any way.

[RaphistheBest]

Now, I'm not going to attack for that post but I'm just wondering what your religion has to do with the fact that evidence is around that there was life on Mars, even microscopic life.

[iris]

Bacteria have been found in Mars.
No, they haven't.

[Anarky]

I might want to repeat that religious debates are not allowed. It's even advisable that you don't even mention religion anywhere on these boards, since that only causes trouble. You can still believe whatever you want, just don't bring it up here, for everyone's sake.

And as to how martian bacterias influence your religious beliefs, the answer's simple: 42.

[Spawn Guy]

How many roads must a man walk down?


And I'm with Voltron on this. Unless there's a bunch of J'onn J'ozz's out there...

[Scandia]

I'm sorry everyone. I was not aware of that rule. But I do not appreciate being cursed out.

I did a final paper about halophiles in Mars once for a class.

[GK Punk]

I'm sorry everyone. I was not aware of that rule.

No worries, you didn't know about it.

[iris]

I did a final paper about halophiles in Mars once for a class.
That would be a cool topic. Some astrobiologists think that halophiles (bacteria that like a salty environment, for those who don't speak geek) would be a very likely bacteria to find on Mars, if any would ever found there. And some scientists think that we have conducted the wrong type of tests looking for Martian bacteria in the past. But we haven't found any. That would be really, really majorly big news, if we did.

[RaphistheBest]

I guess I was thinking about something that dealt with bacteria found on a meteor or something. And I'm not talking about living bacteria, I mean bacteria that died a loooooong time ago.