Opportunity Finds Veins of Water-Deposited Minerals on Mars, Suggesting a Wet Past

By Clay Dillow Posted 12.08.2011 at 2:20 pm 13 Comments

Opportunity Rolls On Maas Digital LLC for Cornell University and NASA/JPL via Wikimedia

We hear about evidence for water on Mars more regularly these days, but we’re pretty sure this is the first time a discovery has been described as “slam-dunk” evidence of a wet past on the Red Planet. The rover Opportunity has found bright veins of what is probably gypsum in the rim of Mars’ Endeavour Crater that were almost certainly deposited there by water running through underground fractures in the rock, researchers say, and that points to a past Mars where liquid water was present.

“This tells a slam-dunk story that water flowed through underground fractures in the rock,” Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for Opportunity, said in a NASA press release. “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.”

What Squyres means is that other gypsum seen on Mars previously--specifically blowing in the wind in a dune field on far northern Mars--is of indeterminate origin. Gypsum is a calcium sulfate, and calcium sulfate comes in many flavors, some hydrates and others not. But the gypsum found in the Homestake vein (as it’s now being called) has been discovered right where it formed rather than blowing in the wind. And multi-filter data from Opportunity’s Panoramic Camera as well as data from Microscopic Imager and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on the rover's arm suggest this calcium sulfate--even if it’s not truly gypsum--is a hydrate.

That means it probably formed when water dissolved calcium out of volcanic rocks, which then combined with sulfur that was deposited there as calcium sulfate. This likely all happened in an underground fracture that has over time been exposed to the surface. And the aptly named Opportunity just happened by to notice it.

Like most Mars discoveries (and scientific discoveries in general) this one asks more questions than it answers. Why is calcium sulfate forming in the rim of this crater but not on the Martian plains? And could the volume of water that spawned this gypsum have been abundant enough to support some kind of life millions of years ago?

Opportunity will keep looking for answers now in its seventh year of service beyond the end of its original mission in 2004. The rover is bound for the sun-facing slope of the crater so its solar panels will be well positioned to weather yet another Martian winter.

13 Comments

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drchuck1

12/08/11 at 2:36 pm

go nasa! oportunity rocks!

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vt007

12/08/11 at 4:16 pm

yeah red cross... try to answer those questions first !

go oportunity ! you soon will have another friend joing yall on mars ^^

---
bored? lets go mine the stars... ^^

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pheonix1012

12/08/11 at 4:58 pm

Thank you for educating me, Stargate: Universe. I would have otherwise not had the slightest clue what this article was talking about in terms of evidence of the presence of liquid water on Mars.

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Eric18

12/08/11 at 10:43 pm

This is just the begging.... Can't wait to hear more.
I hope some of you will look at this article on yahoo and tell me what you think.....
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mysterious-planet-sized-object-spotted-near-mercury-154443870.html

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inaka_rob

12/08/11 at 11:06 pm

@Eric18 WAY off topic and a zillion scientists have already explained the "shadow" as simply the after image of mercury and its effect on the cosmic rays hitting. Planets move in orbit, and the planet sized object just happens to be the SAME size as mecruey and just happens to be where mercury orbit had just previously been!!! amazing!!! isnt it.

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nighthawkich

12/09/11 at 3:45 am

Mindblowing, This little bastard just wont quit. another reason why i cant wait for automobiles to change over to electric. Once we get the range to make them practical, the lifespans of electric engines is virtually infinite.

But not to get off subject, i have to say, these two rovers have to be NASA's greatest triumphs in decades. If their successor proves its quality even half as much, im sure we will be amazed what it uncovers. I cant wait to see how well we manage to orbit drop a Buick!

RIP Spirit, way to go Opportunity! Come on Curiosity!

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Eric18

12/09/11 at 4:11 am

@inaka_rob
Its not the shadow but the thing that absorbs the energy to the right of the shadow, that glows when hit.... did you watch the video??? I looks like an Oval when hit by the energy. I don't know how this could be explained when we can only see it when hit by energy, which would suggest cloaking tech. and I don't think we have something like that yet?????

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gimmeabreak

12/09/11 at 11:56 am

How many times are they going to announce water on Mars? I went to school in the 1970s-80s. It was in our textbooks. I already know this. The carbon dioxide/water ice caps. I know you've done great science, I know you need to justify funding. But we get it there is water there, you have announced some version of "we discovered water" 80 plus times. Enough.

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Wyeth113

12/09/11 at 1:14 pm

@Eric18
First I doubt it is an alien ship because unless it has a really weird way of recharging its batteries and is immune to EMP then doubt that they would have been hit by a solar flare on purpose. Second we don't really know a ton about Mercury because its so hot there we cant really land a probe on it! It could be the solar flare reacting to Mercury (Strange?) gravity or maybe Mercury is full of metals and stuff making it kind of a magnet? which then catches the solar flare in a specific spot? I don't know I'm not a scientist but I think these could be a possible answer?

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rg-5

12/09/11 at 1:27 pm

It got an Opportunity and took it! Spirit alone just wasn't enough! :D

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CosmicJoker42

12/09/11 at 2:49 pm

Interesting and slightly disturbing image: Opportunity and Curiosity making little baby rovers, starting Mars colony before we can.

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Eric18

12/10/11 at 1:05 am

@Wyeth113
Though's are some interesting thoughts that I didn't even think of. Nut about landing a probe, don't we have the tech. now to withstand really high temps?

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tostrong4you

12/13/11 at 10:30 pm

@eric18
Cloaked UFO Next to Mercury STEREO image HOAX explained

<<<<<>>>> /watch?v=eTGLIUJXhdw

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