Images Suggest Water Once Covered Mars

uploaded by Barry ORegan July 16, 2008 at 08:56 pm
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Images Suggest Water Once Covered Mars by Barry ORegan

Minerals in the soil of Mars show it was covered once by lakes, rivers and other bodies of water that could have supported life, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

It is believed Mars was once covered by lakes, flowing rivers and other water-bodies. In June of this year, the Mars Pheonix Lander found ice frozen hard and covered by red dust!

"This is really exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life," said John Mustard of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who worked on the study.

An immense helper in this discovery have been the minerals native to the planet. Different minerals suggest different forms of water. The only way for minerals to be there, naturally, is water.

Apart from the ice, alkaline soil was also discovered, something unexpected by researchers.

The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, suggest water interacted with rocks dating back to what is called the Noachian period on Mars, about 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago.

Another study from Nature Geoscience found evidence of river channels forming a delta where the rivers emptied into a crater lake. The believe is that evidence will be found in the clay since clay does such a wonderful job at preserving life.