This picture proves vary interesting.
It reminds me of wet plaster, or soap like.
Posted on 03/04/2004 12:52:10 PM PST by LibWhacker
On Tuesday, NASA administrators said scientists have concluded the part of Mars being explored by the rover Opportunity was soaking wet in the past. Evidence that Opportunity found in a rock outcropping led scientists to the conclusion, NASA officials said.
Christensen and a team of ASU researchers designed and built thermal emission spectrometers that are on two craft orbiting Mars and on the rovers.
The spectrometers identify minerals by examining the light spectrum they emit and comparing that with the spectrum emitted by known minerals.
Last spring, Christensen said that spectrometer readings from an orbiter indicated the presence of the mineral hematite, particularly in the region of Mars known at Meridiani Planum.
Christensen also said Meridiani looked to him very much like an ancient lakebed.
Hematite most often is formed where there is water. However, other scientists countered Christensen's theory by noting that hematite also can be formed by volcanic activity, and they suggested that volcanic activity was much more likely on Mars.
Nevertheless, it was Christensen's theories about Meridiani that caused NASA to send Opportunity there to land.
"We can now say without doubt that we have landed on a place where there was a lot of water and it was there long enough to form minerals," Christensen said Tuesday. "Minerals don't form overnight; they take years, centuries, millennia perhaps. We're looking at a place where a lot of water was there for a long time."
NASA briefing the other day left this up in the air. It's pretty important, I think. There was a lot of water there, and it was there for a long time.
"The planet Mars will no longer be referred to as the "RED Planet". This term was developed during the Cold War by Republican operatives during the height of the McCarthy hearings. Any statements by the current administration are obvious attempts to politicize space exploration by invoking memories of alleged crimes to humanity by the peaceful people of the former Soviet Union while they imply that the the Democratic Party is weak on Space Exploration Policy.
This picture proves vary interesting.
It reminds me of wet plaster, or soap like.
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