Meridiani Planum: 'Drenched'

Ron · 2004-03-02T22:30:47+00:00

Planum: "Drenched"NASA Science NewsMarch 2, 2004 Long ago, parts of Mars were soaked in liquid water, say scientistsanalyzing data from NASA's Mars rover Opportunity.March 2, 2004: Some rocks at Opportunity's landing site in Meridiani Planumon Mars were once soaked in liquid water. Members of the Mars ExplorationRovers' international science team presented the evidence today to newsreporters at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC."Liquid water once flowed through these rocks. It changed their texture, andit changed their chemistry," said Cornell University's Steve Squyres, theprincipal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and itstwin, Spirit. "We've been able to read the tell-tale clues the water leftbehind, giving us confidence in that conclusion."Here are some of the clues that water formerly pervaded an outcropping ofrocks where Opportunity has been working:(1) The rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer found lots of sulfur inthe outcrop. Related clues from that instrument and the miniature thermalemission spectrometer suggest the sulfur is in the form of sulfate salts(similar to Epsom salts). On Earth, rocks containing so much salt eitherformed in water or, after formation, were soaked in water a long time. [see caption]Above: These spectra show that a rock dubbed "McKittrick" near the MarsExploration Rover Opportunity's landing site at Meridiani Planum, Mars,possesses the highest concentration of sulfur yet observed on Mars. [More](2) The rover's Moessbauer spectrometer detected jarosite, a hydrated ironsulfate mineral that could result from the target rock spending time in anacidic lake or acidic hot springs environment.(3) Pictures from Opportunity's panoramic camera and microscopic imager showmany thin, flat holes--"about the size of pennies," says Squyres--in anoutcrop rock selected for close-up examination. These holes, or "vugs,"match the distinctive appearance of Earth-rock vugs that form where...

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Greg Crinklaw 22 years ago

Yeah, that was apparently this Levin fellow who appears to have found himself out in left field. He tried to steal their thunder (a petty self serving act IMHO). Any hype was due to him, not JPL, NASA, or the science team. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't hold the press conference early just because of the stuff this guy was spewing to any media outlet that would listen. On Monday AM there was a story at space.com in which the reporter suggested a big press conference "late next week". Later that morning the JPL web site announced a special press briefing on Wednesday. By the end of the day it was scheduled for Tuesday...

We have multiple instruments in orbit now that can detect water near the surface. Evidence of such has been found, but not at either of these sites. This guy stirred a lot of people up about liquid water at the surface and that he found life in his ambiguous Viking experiment. That's unfortunate.

One last thing: the news at this press briefing *was* exciting! Go find a basic textbook with a chapter on mars. It's all about questions. And we are in the process of answering those questions! Science doesn't get any more exciting than that!

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Hud Nordin 22 years ago

But, the pictures we see don't necessarily mean mud. See:

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don findlay 22 years ago

Balls. Seen one planet, you've seen em all. What's with this accretion theory?

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George 22 years ago

Ok, let's test your theory. What makes Mars just like Neptune?

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Luis 22 years ago

One example of real exciting science that comes to mind was the discovery of what appeared to be fossilized evidence of microbial life on a Mars meteorite. Now *that* was exciting science, not an announcement that merely confirmed something that most everyone already pretty much knew to be true.

el_encubierto

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Joe Knapp 22 years ago

"Luis" wrote

However, the meteorite announcement had no basis in the long run. Not a very good tradeoff.

One vibe from the press conference... there was an air of "mission accomplished" about the whole thing--that this result (water on Meridiani, how much, how long, in what form, who knows?) is about as much as we can expect to get from Opportunity, & that future missions (sample return) will be needed to even answer the question of how long did the water persist. To that extent, there definitely was a political aspect to the press conference, i.e., "this result shows how we need to continue with the President's plan."

First sample return: 2014.

Joe

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Ralph Nesbitt 22 years ago

Is "The Mindless TV Media Culture" capable of engageing anyone about anything, much less Science?

Ralph Nesbitt

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Carsten Troelsgaard 22 years ago

"Ron" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

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I'm caving in! I had a look at the facies described by Gerhard Einsele of the 'Mediterranean salinity crisis'. The very thin varves in the picture above can be described as seasonal changes in evaporites that settle through the watercolumn. The loose sediment on top has a heavy caliber and may belong to the costal facies passing the site through the regression. Some of the implications obviously is that it has been a very large sea. It seems odd that Mars has not been peneplaned or lack a structuring by the watererosion - did it regain relief? The lowest parts of Mars could perhaps contain more soluble salts - would it be visible from orbit? Score for Elifritz and Jonathan.

Carsten

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George 22 years ago

I think they can, but it is simply not profitible for the general media to do so. However, the success of media outlets such as the cable channel Science TV is proof that there is a thirst for knowledge in the general population. Unfortunately, it is not being nutured enough to make a difference to the rest of the networks.

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don findlay 22 years ago

It's big and round like your napper, nut.

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George 22 years ago

Wrong answer. The correct answer is that Mars is nothing like Neptune, dork. One is a rocky world and the other is a gas giant. Maybe you should throw out that 1940s vintage popular science book you cling to with glee and get an update.

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Meridiani Planum: 'Drenched'

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