NASA Rover Findings Point to a More Earth-like Martian Past

[NeoGreen]

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-rover-findings-point-to-a-more-earth-like-martian-past

NASA Rover Findings Point to a More Earth-like Martian Past

Chemicals found in Martian rocks by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggest the Red Planet once had more oxygen in its atmosphere than it does now.

Researchers found high levels of manganese oxides by using a laser-firing instrument on the rover. This hint of more oxygen in Mars' early atmosphere adds to other Curiosity findings -- such as evidence about ancient lakes -- revealing how Earth-like our neighboring planet once was.

This research also adds important context to other clues about atmospheric oxygen in Mars' past. The manganese oxides were found in mineral veins within a geological setting the Curiosity mission has placed in a timeline of ancient environmental conditions. From that context, the higher oxygen level can be linked to a time when groundwater was present in the rover's Gale Crater study area.

"The only ways on Earth that we know how to make these manganese materials involve atmospheric oxygen or microbes," said Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. "Now we're seeing manganese oxides on Mars, and we're wondering how the heck these could have formed?"

Microbes seem far-fetched at this point, but the other alternative -- that the Martian atmosphere contained more oxygen in the past than it does now -- seems possible, Lanza said. "These high manganese materials can't form without lots of liquid water and strongly oxidizing conditions. Here on Earth, we had lots of water but no widespread deposits of manganese oxides until after the oxygen levels in our atmosphere rose."

Lanza is the lead author of a new report about the Martian manganese oxides in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters. She uses Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which fires laser pulses from atop the rover's mast and observes the spectrum of resulting flashes of plasma to assess targets' chemical makeup.

Exogeology Rocks!

[PJMcK]

1. Fantastic science!

The incredible successes that the Mars rovers keep having are a testament to the brilliance of the scientists and engineers who conceived, built, launched and manage this amazing program.

Keep up the great work, folks!

And thanks for the post, NeoGreen. The picture alone was well worth the click! (wink)

[AuntPatsy]

5. So true

[TrogL]

2. They need to take that rover through a car wash

[longship]

3. I was thinking the exact same thing.

That's one dusty rover.

Busy, busy, busy!

Love it.

[progressoid]

4. Matt Damon is using all the water to grow potatoes.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Taters!

[center][/center]

[cstanleytech]

7. Yes but he is all out of ketchup and is now using crushed Vicodin as a dipping sauce. NT