 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Meteorites Point To Abundant Water On Mars Long Ago
Chicago - Feb. 26, 2001 Chemical analysis of Martian meteorites supports the controversial theory of water on Mars, according to Meenakshi Wadhwa, PhD, associate curator of meteoritics at The Field Museum in Chicago. Her research was published in the February 23rd issue of Science. Last year, an analysis of images of Mars taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft revealed surprising evidence that the planet was once a watery place. On Earth, sedimentary rock is formed by deposition from water, and the photographs of Mars show hundreds of layers of sedimentation. It has generally been assumed that Mars is more oxidized than Earth, partly because of its red surface, which is caused by the presence of iron oxides. But the new evidence indicates that only the outermost rind (i.e., crust) of Mars is moderately to heavily oxidized. This leads to the question of just how did the crust of Mars become oxidized? "On Earth, the most common oxidizing agent is water, so my research supports the idea that abundant water was present in the crust of Mars at one time," Dr. Wadhwa says. Whether water was ever present on Mars is especially intriguing because water is thought to be a necessary ingredient of life. The fact that the crust of Mars is much more oxidized than its deep interior reveals another new piece of information about the mysterious red planet. It means that the oxidized crust of Mars has not mixed extensively with the planet's mantle, a layer between the planet's crust and its interior core. "Therefore, Earth-style plate tectonics is not likely to be taking place on Mars," Dr. Wadhwa says. In contrast, the Earth's mantle (especially the upper part nearest to the crust) is oxidized by "crustal recycling," the mixing of the planet's water-oxidized crust with mantle rocks due to plate tectonics. Although NASA has plans to gather rocks from Mars, rare SNC (Shergottite - Nakhlite - Chassigny) meteorites are the only Martian rock samples scientists currently have to study. Dr. Wadhwa determined the oxidation condition of six of the meteorites by analyzing minute amounts of a rare earth element (specifically, europium) in a mineral known as pyroxene, which makes up a major portion of these rocks. The meteorites are thought to have been produced by volcanic processes on Mars 180-474 million years ago. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links The Field Museum in Chicago SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
