Shaun Saunders send in this article from the UK Telegraph:Nasa says its Mars rover Spirit has discovered "the best evidence yet" of a past habitable environment on the planet's surface. Spirit has been exploring a plateau called Home Plate, where it discovered silica-rich soil in May. Researchers are now trying to determine what produced the patch of nearly pure silica - the main ingredient of window glass. They believe the deposits came from an ancient hot-spring environment or an environment called a fumarole, in which acidic steam rises through cracks. On Earth, both of these types of settings teem with microbial life. Whichever of those conditions produced it, this concentration of silica is probably the most significant discovery by Spirit for revealing a habitable niche that existed on Mars in the past.
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2 comments:
This is certainly a very important find, though the Telegraph headline is a bit overstated. The article describes a habitat suitable for microbes, not solid evidence for them (as does the source article at NASA.) I do hope proof of Martian microbes turns up.
But this is a slight increase in the odds of life throughout the universe as well as on ancient Mars. If conditions conducive to life occurred on at least two planets in our small solar system, then these conditions are likely common in numerous star systems.
Very cool!
I know....I hate to change headlines though... I am right down the line with you on this one, I didn't read it as conclusive, but just conditions that on Earth would have supported life.... I guess I really should start to be a bit more judgmental on the headline..
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