Big news from Mars

[Kooperman]

• March 1, 2004 | Updated 2:25 p.m. ET

Big news from Mars: After a weekend of escalating buzz, NASA has scheduled a rush news conference at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday at its Washington headquarters to announce new findings about water on Mars.

The specifics are being held back for the briefing, but clearly they have to do with evidence sent back from the Mars rovers relating to the role liquid water played — and may still be playing — on the Red Planet. If there is even a bit of salty liquid water beneath the surface of Mars, as hinted last month, that theoretically could open the way for life to exist there even today.

Among the clues are the threadlike features seen in some of the microscopic imagery, which could have been laid down by mineral-rich water percolating through the soil; the fine-layered appearance of Martian bedrock around Opportunity's landing site, which points toward a sedimentary origin; and fancifully nicknamed geological features such as blueberries and macaroni.

The rover missions' principal scientific investigator, Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres, will be among the speakers at Tuesday's briefing, NASA spokesman Don Savage told MSNBC.com. Other speakers include Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science; John Grotzinger, a geologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Benton C. Clark III, chief scientist of space exploration at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Astronautics Operations; rover project scientist Joy Crisp of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Jim Garvin, NASA Headquarters' lead scientist for Mars and the moon.

Arrangements for the briefing were firmed up over the weekend — and Savage said the plans were made so hastily because the news couldn't be held back much longer, "not that we would want to hold it." So stay tuned for the news as it happens, via MSNBC's live video coverage.

• March 1, 2004 | 7:30 p.m. ET

Million-year-old water on Earth: While some geologists debate intriguing traces of subsurface water on Mars, others are intrigued by a particular patch of subsurface water on Earth. This isn't just your garden-variety aquifer: What's special about this particular groundwater is that it's been moving slowly beneath the Sahara Desert for the past million years, since a time when the Sahara was a lush, green landscape.

That conclusion comes from an analysis of thousands of gallons of water drawn from wells in Egypt's Western Desert that dip into the Nubian Aquifer. The research team, whose findings have been accepted for publication in the March issue of Geophysical Research Letters, developed a laser-based method to measure isotopes of krypton within those samples.

Figuring out the ratio of radioactive krypton-81 to the more common krypton-84 told scientists how long the aquifer's water has been on the move, and how fast it's moving — basically providing a radioisotope dating method for groundwater. They found that some of the water was a million years old and moving northward at a rate of 1 to 2 yards per year, about as fast as grass grows.

"Isotopic characteristics of the water itself indicate that it was transported by air masses traveling long distances over North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean, thus reflecting climate conditions much different from the present during the past million years," the American Geophysical Union said in a news release. "Changing climate patterns turned this green oasis into today's desert."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/

[Kooperman]

Rover Finds Mars Was Wet Enough for Life

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By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - Mars rover Opportunity has found evidence that the Red Planet was once wet enough for life to exist there, but the robot has not found any direct traces of living organisms, NASA (news - web sites) scientists announced Tuesday.

A study of a fine, layered rock by the rover detected evidence of sulfates and other minerals that form in the presence of water. The finding suggests that if there had been life present when the rocks were formed, then the living conditions could have permitted an organism to flourish. The study, however, has found no direct evidence of life.

"NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rover mission specifically to check whether at least one part of Mars had a persistently wet environment that could possibly have been hospitable to life," James Garvin, a lead NASA scientist, said in a statement. "Today we have strong evidence for an exciting answer: Yes."

Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, are controlled by a team of scientists working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Scientists there earlier in the week said they had found exciting results from the work of Opportunity. Details were not immediately available.

Steve Squyres, a Cornell University scientist and principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity, said the rover's study of formations near its landing site show that liquid water once flowed there, changing the chemistry and composition of the rocks.

"We've been able to read the telltale clues the water left behind, giving us confidence in that conclusion," Squyres said in a statement.

Additional studies will determine if the rocks were laid down by minerals formed at the bottom of a salty lake or sea.

Opportunity landed five weeks ago near an exposed bedrock embedded in the wall of a small crater.

The rover conducted a chemical analysis of the outcrop, including a rock named El Capitan by scientists, and found a concentration of sulphur rich in magnesium, iron and other sulfate salts. Opportunity's instrument also detected jarosite, an iron sulfate mineral.

On Earth, such minerals would have formed in water and the presence of jarosite suggests an acid-rich lake or hot springs environment, scientists said.

John Grotzinger, a geologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites) in Cambridge, said the evidence of water also includes three direct visual observations: the presence in El Capitan of small voids, called vugs; the presence of spherules, and the layering of the rock.

Images shows that El Capitan is pocked with .4-inch long indentations or voids that may have once contained salt minerals. Such voids, or vugs, form when crystals of salt minerals aggregate within a rock sitting in salty water. Later processes cause the crystals to disappear, leaving behind the voids within the rock.

BB-sized particles, called spherules, also formed in the rock. These can be formed from molten droplets originating from meteor impacts or from volcanic action, or they can precipitate from solution inside of porous rock. NASA scientists said that since the spherules are randomly distributed they probably formed in water. If they were of volcanic or impact origin, the spherules would probably concentrate in rock layers that were exposed at the time of those events, the researchers said in a statement.

The rock also has layers in a pattern called crossbedding that can be formed by water or wind action, the statement said.

More study of the target rocks is planned. Officials said they will maneuver the six-wheeled rover closer to the outcrop to get closer, more detailed views.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid...rs_20&printer=1

[Malicious Intent]

Swet. there is hope for me to live on Mars. I'd paint myself green and jump out at people! BOO!

[Kooperman]

like this....

[rainbowdemon]

Pretty amazing stuff!