Spirit Rover's 'Pot of Gold' Points to Past Water
PASADENA, CALIF. - Both of NASA's Mars rover vehicles have
discovered more signs of past water. At a site about 3.3 kilometres from its
landing site, the Spirit rover has found a rare, knobby rock about the size
of a softball that contains the mineral hematite. On Earth, the mineral
normally forms in the presence of water, but it can also have a volcanic
origin. "This rock has the shape as if somebody took a potato and stuck
toothpicks in it, then put jelly beans on the end of the toothpicks," said
Steve Squyres, the lead scientist for the rover mission… The rover has
photographed the rock and measured its mineral contents. NASA scientists,
who've dubbed the rock Pot of Gold, hope the data will help them determine
if the hematite had a watery origin. NASA plans to have the rover drill into
the rock's interior. Spirit will mark six months on the Red Planet at the
end of this week.
On the opposite
side of Mars, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is exploring a stadium-sized
crater, where it has found more signs of sulphate salts. The salts suggest
there was more water than scientists thought. “It looks like there were
periods of wetting and drying for the shallow water”, Squyres told a news
conference Friday. In March, Opportunity found evidence that Eagle Crater
once was soaked in water. Both rovers have surpassed their scheduled
three-month mission on Mars.