Posted on 12/19/2015 4:50:10 PM PST by BenLurkin
In a finding that suggests "considerable water activity" on Mars, NASA says its Curiosity rover has found very high concentrations of silica on the red planet. The agency says it also found "a mineral named tridymite, rare on Earth and never seen before on Mars."
The discoveries took place on Mount Sharp, where Curiosity drilled into a rock called "Buckskin" to find the tridymite, and where it used its "ChemCam" laser to measure high silica levels. The odd findings led researchers to take the rare step of ordering Curiosity to retrace its path to learn more.
Explanations for the high silica levels "all require considerable water activity," says Jens Frydenvang of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Copenhagen. He adds, "and on Earth high silica deposits are often associated with environments that provide excellent support for microbial life."
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Looks like parts of New Mexico near Gallup
There are more sharp edged peaks in this one picture than in any pics I’ve seen taken on the lunar surface. Pretty though even without any tress or shrubbery.
Isn’t “silica” another name for “sand?”
We need to terraform Mars, then pollute it until the Greenies freak.
Or would they be called Reddies.
The Arab/Muslims should love Mars.
Wouldn't greening Mars technically be polluting it?
NO KILL I
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Thanks colorado tanker.
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She was always my favorite, along with Sky King's niece Penny and Elly May Clampett...
highly plausible..
Arizona?
at least he’s not dead...
"There is something of a paradox about Mars," agrees Joshua Bandfield of Arizona State University in Tempe. His team recently showed that the planet has no large deposits of carbonates, which should have formed if giant pools of water had persisted on the surface. Bandfield suggests that liquid water must have occasionally burst out of the ground, carving channels and gullies, but that it quickly froze again in the frigid Martian climate.
Mars gullies likely contain ‘no water’, study says
December 21, 2015 by Pascale Mollard-Chenebenoit
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-mars-gullies.html
http://cdn.phys.org/newman/csz/news/800/2015/thisnasajplu.jpg
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