Mars Rovers Find More Evidence of Water

loconet writes "Space.com and JPL are reporting that the Mars Rovers might be on the verge of confirming that large amounts of water once flowed in a region of Mars that has looked curiously dry until now. Such a finding could be comparable to their discovery earlier this year of an ancient shallow sea on the other side of the red planet. Opportunity has found lumpy, odd rock unlike anything its seen to date. The rock concentration seems much rougher than the 'blueberries' found earlier on in the mission. Researchers hope to swing by the rock on the way out of Endurance for further study. 'It could just be one big mass of concretions,' Squyres said. 'I just don't know.' Meanwhile, Spirit, which has now climbed about 10 yards up a hillside, getting above the Gusev plain, found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'. Both rovers have been exploring more than twice as long as they were designed to last. And even though the Martian winter is at its coldest, engineers are confident that the rovers will continue, despite showing signs of mortality."

Comments

Re:In other news,

[Rollaj]

All your base are blong to us puny mortal!

Re:Winter on Mars?

[Fishstick]

I think that the tilt of the earth's axis relative to the orbital plane causing winter/summer is not the same mechanism on mars.

I think it probably has more to do with Mars having a somewhat eliptical orbit:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/mineralogy/mars/Marshtml/2orb italparameters.html