Transcript Document
Water on Mars Origins of water • The impact of asteroids to mars surface. • Polar caps of ice • Subsurface finds of reservoirs of water Possibility *Organic and carbon compounds Nano fossils Geological changes Weather changes Co2 instead of H2o in liquid form. Discovery of the mineral hematite • Mars Global Surveyor discovered a large exposure of the mineral in Eagle Crater. • Opportunity was sent to this location for further exploration. Opportunity lands on Eagle Crater • Minerals identified and mapped by rovers. • Among these hematite which often forms in the presence of water. • Also Goethite which only forms when water is involved. Blueberries • Hematite inclusions discovered by Opportunity. • Embedded in the rocks and were released over time by erosion. • These blueberries are spread out evenly inside the rocks. Victoria Crater • Larger and deeper than Eagle Crater. • Presence of sulfur-rich materials throughout study area which indicates acidic watery environments. Columbia Hills • It is located in GUSEV Crater. • Spirit used its RAT to locate sulfur. • The rock was named Peace after Martin Luther King. • Probable evidence of past alteration by water. Endeavour Crater • Curiosity part of the Mars Exploration Project. • There was clay with smectites that form in pH neutral water. • This is evidence that the water was consumable. Works Cited http://tinyurl.com/lpzqzyv accessed Jan. 28th, 2014. http://tinyurl.com/mvql56t accessed Jan. 28th, 2014. Mcewen, Alfred S.1. "Mars In Motion." Scientific American 308.5 (2013): 5865. General Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 16 Jan. 2014. http://tinyurl.com/n3xjaky accessed Jan. 28th, 2014. Hubbard, Scott. Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011.Web. Barlow, Nadine G. Mars: An Introduction to Its Interior, Surface and Atmosphere. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Web.