Opportunity Rover finds more evidence that water once flowed on Mars

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been gathering information about the Red Planet for almost eight years now, offering tantalizing hints that suggest what is now arid and dusty once might have held flowing water. Another such tidbit was presented recently at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco: veins of a mineral, probably gypsum, that were obviously deposited by water.

According to Steve Squyres, principal investigator for Opportunity, "This stuff is a fairly pure chemical deposit that formed in place right where we see it. That can't be said for other gypsum seen on Mars or for other water-related minerals Opportunity has found. It's not uncommon on Earth, but on Mars, it's the kind of thing that makes geologists jump out of their chairs."

Calcium sulfate appears in many forms, depending on how much water is bound into the mineral. The data collected by Opportunity suggests that the material in this particular vein is hydrated calcium sulfate (otherwise known as gypsum). The deposit probably formed as water dissolved calcium out of the surrounding volcanic rock, which could indicate a less harshly acidic water environment than has previously been found on Mars.

Benton Clark, an Opportunity science team member from the Space Science Institute, posits that "It could have formed in a different type of water environment, one more hospitable for a larger variety of living organisms." It's not quite hard proof that there was once life on our closest neighbor planet, but Opportunity and its new companion Curiosity will continue the search.

(Source)

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