Sun, Dec 11, 2011
NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover Scores Breakthrough
NASA says its Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found
bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water.
Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history
of wet environments on Mars.
"This tells a slam-dunk story that
water flowed through underground fractures in the rock," said Steve
Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for
Opportunity. "This stuff is a fairly pure chemical deposit that
formed in place right where we see it. That can't be said for other
gypsum seen on Mars or for other water-related minerals Opportunity
has found. It's not uncommon on Earth, but on Mars, it's the kind
of thing that makes geologists jump out of their chairs."
The latest findings by Opportunity were presented Wednesday at
the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco.
The vein examined most closely by Opportunity is about the width
of a human thumb (0.4 to 0.8 inch), 16 to 20 inches long, and
protrudes slightly higher than the bedrock on either side of it.
Observations by the durable rover reveal this vein and others like
it within an apron surrounding a segment of the rim of Endeavour
Crater. None like it were seen in the 20 miles (33 kilometers) of
crater-pocked plains that Opportunity explored for 90 months before
it reached Endeavour, nor in the higher ground of the rim.
The deposit, whether gypsum or another form of calcium sulfate,
likely formed from water dissolving calcium out of volcanic rocks.
The minerals combined with sulfur either leached from the rocks or
introduced as volcanic gas, and was deposited as calcium sulfate
into an underground fracture that later became exposed at the
surface.
Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their
three-month prime missions on Mars in April, 2004. Both rovers
continued extended missions for years and made important
discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have
been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped
communicating in 2010. Opportunity continues exploring, currently
heading to a sun-facing slope on the northern end of the Endeavour
rim fragment called "Cape York" to keep its solar panels at a
favorable angle during the mission's fifth Martian winter.
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