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"Habitable niche" evidence found by Spirit Mars rover

Posted Dec 23, 2007 at 11:37PM by Jay P. Listed in: Space Exploration, Space Missions Tags: Mars, NASA
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Mars rover finds possible

On January 2004, the Mars rover, Spirit, started its supposedly 90-day mission. Until today, it's still running and providing more information about our neighboring planet, Mars. The picture above is Gusev Crater. It was near here that Spirit uncovered new evidence for a once-habitable enviroment on the planet. Steve Sqyres, principal investigator for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, considers it "one of the most significant" mission discoveries to date.

Evidence was found by the rover when one of its front wheels stopped working in March 2006, which forced it to drive backwards. Scientists noticed the upturned unusually bright soil caused by the broken wheel. Measurements were then taken by the rover with the particle X-ray spectrometer and mini-thermal emission spectrometer. 90 percent of the soil turned up to be amorphous silica - a substance which is highly associated with life-supporting environments here on Earth.

This new found evidence was reminiscent of last year's discovery when Spirit got caught in patches of soil that had high levels of sulfur which is possibly an indicator of hydrothermal activity.

"This is one of the most powerful pieces of evidence for formerly habitable conditions that we have found," said Squyres in an interview. He added that "...this is, either way, a representation of what in the past was a local habitable environment - a little habitable niche on the surface of Mars."

For more details on the status of Spirit and its recent discoveries, visit the source link below.

[Via Cornell Chronicle On line] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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