Science and Space

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5 most important things learned on Mars in 2004

1. There was water

Photos snapped from orbit suggested dry lakes and riverbeds on Mars. However, until NASA’s Opportunity rover examined Eagle Crater, its landing site in Meridiani Planum, there had been no proof.

The evidence: round rocks dubbed "blueberries," which formed in water; small holes formed by crystals that dissolved; rich sulfur content attributed to water; cross-bedding or rock formations formed by flowing water currents; and salt deposits typical of evaporation.

2. Life was possible

The rovers’ discoveries offer both a promising target for future missions and enticement to investigate whether life can arise in hostile environments.

Experiments suggest that deposits like those on Mars may create an environment where the components of nucleic acids, the building blocks of genetic material, are made and stabilized.

3. Impressive performances of robots

Spirit and Opportunity were supposed to last three months. Spirit is at 12 with Opportunity not far behind, highlighting the impressive capabilities of robots.

As they come out of winter, they’re getting more power than expected. Dust on the solar panels has leveled off and even was cleaned off on Opportunity, perhaps by wind or a dust devil.

Instead of traveling a third of a mile as expected, Spirit has rolled about 2.5 miles.

4. Methane mystery

Europe’s Mars Express orbiter has found water vapor concentrated in three equatorial regions that correspond to where NASA’s Odyssey saw a layer of water ice below the surface.

Intriguingly, concentrations of methane overlap with the water vapor. Though more analysis is needed, the discovery raises the question of whether geothermal processes bring water vapor and methane to the surface, or whether bacterial life might be a source of the methane.

5. Meteorites find match

Opportunity found that the volcanic rock has a strong similarity to some meteorites discovered in Antarctica and other locations on Earth, giving credence to the theory that they came from Mars.

Click here for more about Mars

posted by: kyawoo at 21:16 | link | comments (1) |
mars

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#1  06 January 2005 - 01:11

 

Great post!

You might want to check out a fellow Oregon blogger:

http://spacetramp.blogspot.com/

Anonymous

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