NASA Gets A Good Look At Mars Soil And A True Puzzle

Opening its primary digital eyes for the first time, the rover Spirit on Tuesday transmitted the most detailed photos ever sent from the surface of Mars, revealing an alien vista of deep russet sands, a mysteriously sticky form of soil and a far-off mesa in the light orange haze.

The rocky scene is about four times sharper than any previous photos from the planet, and experts said the probe should be sending even larger, three-dimensional views of its terrain within a few days. Scientists will use those photos and information from an infrared imaging instrument to choose the most promising places for the rover to start visiting next week in search of signs that Mars once had a habitat suitable for life.

It's difficult to imagine life surviving now in the barren landscape around the rover--though mission planners have said one goal of the robotic Mars expeditions is to scout out possible landing sites in case the U.S. ever sends astronauts to Mars.

But on Tuesday, researchers analyzing the new images took a moment to look at the planet with simple wonder.

"My reaction has been one of shock and awe," said Jim Bell, leader of the mission's imaging team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The sticky-looking soil may be the first true puzzle of the mission, scientists said. Technicians believe the probe's landing airbags disturbed the dirt near the rover when they retracted back under the craft, soon after the landing. The dirt that was dragged by the airbags now looks oddly folded, almost as if it were damp clay.

"It looks like mud, but it can't be mud," said principal investigator Steven Squyres. "It's not like anything that I have ever seen before. It's very weird-looking stuff."

Researchers believe Martian soil in the rover's vicinity is bone-dry near the surface, adding to the mystery. Squyres said it's possible that moisture evaporating from below left a salty, cohesive crust at the surface.

The Rover struck sub-soil oil!

/ wishful thinking.

Maybe not so far-fetched as you might think. I learned right here on FR some months ago about a theory by the physicist Thomas Gold, of pulsar fame, that says something like: petroleum may not be the decomposed remnants of prehistoric dinosaurs, as most people believe, but a more fundamental byproduct of the breakdown of heavy elements like uranium, with the help of some unknown biological process. When uranium decays, some of the nucleus of the uranium atom comes off in pieces larger than a single hydrogen atom, which is a single proton and an electron. The pieces might be multiple protons and neutrons, which are essentially heavier elements like helium and carbon. Carbon and hydrogen combine to form methane, which is basically natural gas. (Did you know that commercial helium for balloons and such comes from natural gas sources?) Well, with the help of the heretofor unknown biological process, the methane is combined with other methane and hydrogen to form more complex hydrocarbons, what we call petroleum.

To take the line of thinking a little further, since the earth has heavy elements within the crust, then it is likely that mars also has heavy elements within its crust. The same physical processes would occur, meaning that methane is very probably present in the martian crust somewhere. My first thought on reading the original post was "oil." How much would you bet that Dr. Gold is not contemplating the same thing right now?

To: blam

I just found this on a recent photo from the rover and it is not something I put together. It is from the Panoramic Camera taken on Sol 008:

To: blam

Also, check out this piece of pipe from the first pancam image:

Clearly this soil has all the properties of plasticine or damp clay. I just can't imagine how this could be without some sort of liquid in it. What could this liquid be at such a low temperature? My guess is water with some sort of antifreeze.

This antifreeze could be from an inorganic source, but there is a much more exciting possibility. The soil could contain bacteria that produces antifreeze chemicals. This is a trick used by life on earth, and just about the only way life could exist on mars. We know that mars has ice, soil and both light, and chemicals that can be used to create energy (such as volcanic sulphur). The only problem for life is making the water liquid.

The most primitive life we could imagine, at these temperatures, would have the effect of turning ice and energy rich chemical bearing soil into clay. The chemicals are used to power the creation of antifreeze, which melts the water. The water dissolves the chemicals, so that the life can process them, to create more life and more antifreeze. And so it goes. This life might be so primitive it doesn't even have cell walls! With hindsight, this is what we should have been looking for.

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