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Mars Rovers Find More Evidence of Water

Posted by michael on from the day-at-the-beach dept.

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."

28 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. In other news, by La_Boca · · Score: 5, Funny

    Martians took over the rover and programmed it with an ominous message:

    "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."

  2. This Headline Is Not for Sale by dmayle · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now, I want to know, is this Longhorn rock a symptom of this? And if so, is Microsoft giving money to OSDN, or have they gone straight to NASA to participate in "the growing trend of inserting ads more directly into online content"

    It's funny... laugh... Please...?

  3. oh no, its happened... by civman2 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Meanwhile, Spirit, which has now climbed about 10 yards up a hillside, getting above the Gusev plain, found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'.
    Microsoft now has products on TWO PLANETS! We need to find a rock somewhere and name it Sunbird, quick!
  4. So that's where it is! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Meanwhile, Spirit, which has now climbed about 10 yards up a hillside, getting above the Gusev plain, found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'.

    No wonder it's taken MS so long to get Longhorn out. They've got to haul it from Mars!

  5. I still want to see. . . by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the remains of the parachute and heat shield which were seen in other photos early on.

    Yeah, not the most exciting thing but you could send the rover(s) on a long trip to see the remnants and examine stuff along the way.

    Checking the remains would provide information for future designs regarding heat shield and parachute technology.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    1. Re:I still want to see. . . by Devar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Although it would be interesting to see, there's no way they'd do it. We can test heat shield technology and parachutes here on earth any day. And it's a proven design anyhow. Sending the rover back to have a look at them wouldn't reveal any scientific data that we don't already know or can extrapolate.

      --
      It's a Bagel.
    2. Re:I still want to see. . . by ToshiroOC · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Opportunity is planned to go to its heatshield after it has finished geological surveys of the Endurance Crater and winter is over - the crater is shielding it somewhat from cooling winds, and since heating the rover to compensate for these winds is very expensive electrically, it is likely that the heatshield will only be seen if the rover survives the winter fully operational and something more interesting outside of Endurance crater hasn't been found.

  6. more evidence... by Chuck+Bucket · · Score: 5, Informative

    more evidence from a diff perspective. It seems pretty likely now that water *did* or perhaps is even still, on Mars. cool.

    CB)(*&^%$

    --
    free ipod and free gmail!
    1. Re:more evidence... by brainstyle · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And Arthur C. Clarke believes Martian life exists to this day. It's easy to see that the so-called spiders look life-like, and I'd like very much for that to turn out to be the case. Mind you, the human brain is pretty good forming patterns out of just about anything.

      --
      "Why can't everyone just be straight with me?"
      "Because we live in a bendy world, dear."
  7. Longhorn by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'.

    Sheesh, when NASA works faster than Microsoft, there's a cause for concern...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  8. Rocks on the Surface by Launch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't it possible, since Mars does not have a thick atmosphere like earth, that rocks that are found on Mars's surface are not nessicarly from mars?

    --
    Your mammas flamebait.
    1. Re:Rocks on the Surface by dave420 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Atmosphere or not, "alien" rocks can end up on the surface of a planet quite easily. Of course, if the rocks are all uniform, chances are they are local, and not from somewhere far away. The dead giveaway of a meteorite is that it's very different from the rocks around it. (and usually in a hole :))

    2. Re:Rocks on the Surface by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 5, Informative

      Isn't it possible, since Mars does not have a thick atmosphere like earth, that rocks that are found on Mars's surface are not nessicarly from mars?

      Anything that fell from orbit would still end up partly melted, probably fragmented, and showing signs of shock and heating from impact in its mineral structure. This is partly how we identify things like the antarctic Mars rocks as being from Mars.

      By contrast, conglomerates like the rock found now are weak and brittle, and wouldn't survive re-entry and impact intact. The other sedimentary minerals found have structures that would also have been changed by something as traumatic as falling from space.

      So, minerals on Mars that look like they were formed in water, almost certainly had to have formed in water that was on Mars.

    3. Re:Rocks on the Surface by ToshiroOC · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, it is possible, but keep in mind that the vast majority of the rocks being observed by the two rovers are bedrock - very large underground formations that have an exposed surface at the surface. Therefore, the chances of bedrock actually being a buried-and-then-exposed foreign body are reasonably slim. If we do find a foreign rock on Mars, though, we would probably be able to tell because we have a general baseline for what the majority of rocks on Mars look like spectrally - and we can be pretty confident that the vast majority of rocks we're looking at on the surface are NOT foreign because there are no impact craters in the sand around them - and many of these rocks are far too large to not have a visible impact crater, if they really were foreign.

  9. Re:Funny messages by Laivincolmo · · Score: 4, Informative

    The rovers are taking some wear from the martian environment. At one point I heard that one of the wheels on one of the rovers began experiencing more resistance to moving. I suppose the dust and dirt are begining to clog and gum parts up on the rover.

  10. That explains things yesterday.... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Opportunity has found lumpy

    I was wondering why I felt like someone was following me yesterday....

    This is not going to help my paranoia one bit.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  11. Re:Where is all the water now? by Laivincolmo · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think that the leading theory is that the water is locked up beneath the surface as permafrost.

  12. Re:Funny messages by EddieBurkett · · Score: 4, Informative
    Anyway, what does the article mean by "showing signs of mortality"? I haven't heard anything about this except for the initial mishap they had when they had to reprogram one of the rovers.
    Reading the article, my guess is this is what they were referring to:
    During the briefing researchers added that Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is suffering from a jammed drill.
    --
    The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
  13. Ironic by MikeMacK · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the previous story, "Writing Software Worldwide Proves Difficult", it said 23 of 56 people couldn't find the Pacific Ocean on a map, and yet we can find water on other planets. Looks like all the people who got A's in geography work at NASA.

  14. Nice! by The-Bus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Finally, more evicence of refreshing, live giving Dasani(TM) on Mars.

    --

    Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

  15. Trace of Dinosaurus Rex on Mars by denisbergeron · · Score: 4, Funny

    This picture of Endurance rook look realy like Dinosaurus Rex feces
    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images .cfm?id =787
    May be this can explain why Dinosaurus was extinguish!

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
  16. Stromatolite ? by Jesrad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Could that "lumpy" rock be a fossil of a ?

    --
    Maybe we deserve this world ?
  17. Re:Winter on Mars? by throughthewire · · Score: 5, Informative
    Sorry , but you can't have the whole planet in winter.

    You could if there was no tilt to its axis of rotation relative to its orbital plane.

    Mars, though, tilts about the same as Earth - 25 degrees or so. But its orbital eccentricity has a 19% variance, versus Earth's 2%. The 'Southern Winter' is much longer and colder than the 'Northern Winter,' and the whole planet is colder. The Martian Southern hemisphere experiences much greater temperature variance than any point on Earth.

    Seasons on Mars

  18. Martian Longhorn by scottyboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    A NASA spokesperson said that the rover was projected to reach the Longhorn rock "sometime in 2005... no wait! 2006... um... 2007?"

  19. Screw water -- where are the killer DNA bacteria? by IronChefMorimoto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Screw this "NASA found water today" and "Spirit discovered more water this month" and "scientists believe there's water in this rock" crap.

    When is NASA going to bring back a sample of killer DNA bacteria back to Earth from Mars, clone a fast-growing horny chick in a glass box, and then let her loose to find the first guy to fuck hard and nasty before ripping his groin in two with her alien scissor legs?

    'cause I'm waiting on that kind of woman, and I think it'd be a great way to go out in a blaze of...wait...never mind. I'm a computer nerd with a gut, pale white skin, and a rash that we won't talk about here. She'll be hunting a prime specimen with whom to sow her seed.

    Back to Far Cry and /. news. Sigh...

    IronChefMorimoto

  20. JPL link by chaosmage42 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think the JPL press release the link i sposed to point to is here

    --

    done
  21. Does it have to be water? by Tokerat · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Everyone is so excited about the possibility of liquid water on Mars, but has anyone considered that it might be some other type of liquid? Something with different properties that would explain the odd patterns?

    This article intrigued me, but why is everyone so focused on water? Could the carbon dioxide or some other atmospheric gas be condensing in the cold north to form the odd runoff channels on the rock. This rock faces away from the sun and would therefore be one of Mars' coldest points. Could that be why there is little other than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Could wind erosion and perhaps even blast shockwaves from meteorites have been causing the errosive-looking paterns in such an enviroment? With the atmosphere being lighter, wouldn't meteorites hit harder and more frequently than Earth? Finally, can we draw any similarities to our own moon's surface, a place which we know much more about?

    (I ask because I have no idea)

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    1. Re:Does it have to be water? by ToshiroOC · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Mars Odyssey mission found water within a meter of the surface in many places on Mars. Aeolian (wind) erosion processes are noticably different from water erosion processes (at least, that's what the geologists say - I won't pretend I can tell the difference myself just looking at something). Carbon dioxide freezes into a solid and then sublimes - liquid CO2 requires very high pressures, and the Martian atmosphere has a pressure some 1% of earth's. Other possible liquids such as methane require significantly colder temperatures to condense than what are available on Mars. Meterorite impact frequency isn't a function of atmospheric density - just they'll burn up less before hitting the ground, and then, yes, hit harder - but blast shockwaves aren't going to create the 'razorback' structures found in some of the cracks of the rocks at Endurance crater. Also, elements in the correct ratio to be particular salts are being found in the rocks, and some of these salts are known as ones that would be carried in water. We can draw similarities to the moon, but not many - again, aeolian processes will influence martian geology strongly, and there is no atmosphere or carbon dioxide ice or water ice on the moon (minus some possible craters, look up DoD/Clementine's recent moon imaging).