News Neutral pH water discovered to have flowed on Mars

[Kyle]

Rover Finds New Evidence That Ancient Mars Was Habitable

"This is water you could drink," Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University told reporters today (June 7), explaining why the rock, dubbed "Esperance," stands out from other water-soaked stones the rover has studied. [Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life (Photos)]

"This is water that was probably much more favorable in its chemistry, in its pH, in its level of acidity, for things like prebiotic chemistry — the kind of chemistry that could lead to the origin of life," Squyres added."

I'm amazed that this happened twice in our solar system, this is direct evidence to support that flowing water existed on Mars once.

 

[boogabooga]

Sooo,

We sent another $1 billion new rover to find what Opportunity would have found anyway? Awkward. :rofl:

 

[Codz]

Sooo,

We sent another $1 billion new rover to find what Opportunity would have found anyway? Awkward. :rofl:

It's not as if we're just going to power it down and call it a mission just because of this discovery. The MSL should hopefully have quite a few discoveries left in it.(Especially with the new equipment and lack of solar reliance)

 

[RisingFury]

Sooo,

We sent another $1 billion new rover to find what Opportunity would have found anyway? Awkward. :rofl:

Opportunity was supposed to run for 90 Martian days, not over 9 years...

 

[N_Molson]

Now I'm really confident they'll find something like micro-fossils.

 

[RisingFury]

Now I'm really confident they'll find something like micro-fossils.

Your confidence is misplaced. Opportunity lacks the tools to determine that and even Curiosity's tools are limited in that capacity. It can find indirect evidence for life - chemistry that should never have happened under "normal" conditions. But I don't think it's actually capable of seeing any direct evidence.

 

[statickid]

Opportunity was supposed to run for 90 Martian days, not over 9 years...

I would argue it was supposed to run as long as possible with an initial science goal of 90 days being considered as "getting-our-money's-worth-so-now-if-it-breaks-down-noone-will-be-mad"

 

[Kyle]

Now I'm really confident they'll find something like micro-fossils.

Any sort of fossil discovery would probably be one of the most significant discoveries in human history.

 

[N_Molson]

Your confidence is misplaced. Opportunity lacks the tools to determine that and even Curiosity's tools are limited in that capacity.

I didn't meant on that mission. More like the next one that involves drilling.

 

[Keatah]

If the fossils are big enough and exposed. The camera's will see it. Afterall they just found some rodents there, didn't they?

It's cool the MER is making all the big discoveries. I'm not excited by what MSL has shown yet. But we'll all be patient and wait and see.

 

[statickid]

Msl has barely even started to consider thinking about getting into the meat of its mission, I'm sure it'll have its fair share of cool discoveries

 

[Unstung]

The photo at the top of the article is actually an example of what I calibrate, although I haven't worked with the images that were processed into that particular photograph. It was color calibrated and inspected by others before I got this position. The photograph was taken on Sol 3262 and can be seen in its original location on this webpage: http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/false_color66.html

That being said, it's exciting when articles describe stuff I see every week. I worked with photos taken on the same Sol as the following image, and the rocks in the image look like they have some clays:

If you check the title, it's a false color image from Sol 3317. It used the left camera and filters 2, 5, and 7 (L257). I can't remember which wavelengths the filters are, but for reference the MERs have 8 filters ranging from IR to UV.

Also, this article from The Planetary Society details Opportunity's journey from Sols 3295-3325.