Mars Rover Opportunity Makes 'Significant' Finding

Yahoo! News ^ | 3/1/04 | Gina Keating - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

Speculation was rife on Monday that space scientists were on the verge of announcing they had discovered evidence that Mars was once a wet and warm planet, possibly capable of sustaining microscopic life forms.

Officials with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that Mars scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, were flying to Washington for a "significant" announcement, but shied away from saying what it would be.

"I can't confirm what they are going to say ... just that it's a significant ... finding," by the rover Opportunity, JPL spokesman Guy Webster said.

But in recent days, scientists have openly spoken of their excitement over finding coarse gray hematite at the Opportunity site, and predicted it would lead to an understanding of how the bedrock the rover is studying was formed and whether water was involved.

The scientists and engineers working with Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have held all their briefings in Pasadena since the robotic geologists landed on Mars in January.

But major developments in NASA (news - web sites) programs "are typically announced out of (Washington) headquarters," Webster said.

Scheduled to attend the Tuesday briefing were lead rover scientist Steve Squyres, geologist John Grotzinger, chief space exploration scientist Benton Clark, project scientist Joy Crisp, and Jim Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars and the Moon.

Opportunity landed on Jan. 24 in a small crater on the vast flat Meridiani Planum near the planet's equator. It has spent most of its 36 martian days, or sols, studying finely layered bedrock in the crater's wall.

Scientists have been puzzling over whether the layers were formed by wind, volcanic lava flows or water, and if spherical "blueberries" discovered in the rocks were water-related.

In a briefing last week, the Opportunity team said data gathered by the rover's spectrometers and microscopic imager in a flat area of bedrock nicknamed Charlie Flats suggested the presence of gray hematite, which on Earth can form in oxygenated water.

Opportunity's spectrometers also have detected a large deposit of hematite in the surrounding plains.

The science team had planned to compare the spectral signatures of the martian rocks with Earth samples to confirm that the composition was the same.

Evidence of rocks or soil that formed in water would help validate scientists' theories that for the first half of its 4.6 billion-year existence, Mars had plentiful surface water -- even rain and snow -- and possibly, life.

Opportunity and Spirit, now in sol 57 on the other side of the planet, were designed to search for signs of water for at least 90 days, or as long as their solar-powered batteries last.

[Dialup Llama]

>There's one retired Viking scientist, I believe, who insists it did.

I remember in some statistics class we looked at the data. The data was good enough to make the results significant but not by much. I guess they figured if there was really life, those experiments should have been fermenting wine.

[NeonKnight]

All scientists are a little kooky...but I digress.

[Dialup Llama]

Please someone photoshop that monolith pic onto a color landscape of Mars. Put some pyramids in the background too.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Bump to find out:

God DOES exist!

[Joe Hadenuf]

Officials with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that Mars scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, were flying to Washington for a "significant" announcement, but shied away from saying what it would be.

I am salivating in anticipation.

"I can't confirm what they are going to say ... just that it's a significant ... finding," by the rover Opportunity, JPL spokesman Guy Webster said.

Oh man, this is like being a little kid at Christmas....

[Joe Hadenuf]

Yes, NASA may have some very BIG news for us tomorrow!

Yehaw! Can't wait.

[John H K]

Well,

To be honest there has been a bit much of well-meaning people not really qualified to assess the microscope pics staring a bit too hard at them (and allowing their hopes to get the better of them)

I haven't seen anything in them that looks particularly fossil-ish to me. Not that I'm qualified either, but I can turn off the "what I hope is there" part of my brain. (Though many on FR would submit I can turn off ALL of my brain, but I digress.)

People have gotten the strange idea that ANY sort of even vaguely organized structure or symmetry is a sign of life. It isn't.

There are a great many self-organizing or apparently organized structures in nature that have nothing to do with life.

[John H K]

The problem is I think people are going to have their hopes dashed when it isn't "life." (And I'd be more thrilled than anyone if it is, but I'd put the chances of that as very, very, very, very, very, very, very low.) The problem is there's been so much confusion over the "water" thing (yes, we HAVE known there is frozen water on Mars for years, it's nothing new) that I have the perception that any discovery other than "Life on Mars" is considered irrelevant by the general public; I don't think people have really grasped that finding conclusive evidence of flowing liquid water on the surface is HUGH in and of itself.

[null and void]

Hence my tag line.

But, I can't help seeing what I see.

(Although I know on an intellectual level that what I see may not be real. Clouds don't really have faces...)

[Calvin Locke]

I think they found this

I guess Xixo really did get it off this world.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Simply conclusive evidence of standing liquid water or true water-generated sedimentary rocks on Mars would be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the space program, and, indeed, the whole century.

Well the century's only three years old. I think you might be jumping the gun a bit.

[Joe Hadenuf]

People have gotten the strange idea that ANY sort of even vaguely organized structure or symmetry is a sign of life. It isn't.

And I agree, however imagination is a good thing and generally doesn't cause harm.

This announcement may not be about life, as much as it may be about the ingredients for life, like a confirmation of the discovery or findings, of the evidence of water, past or present.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for the link.

Here it is.. good stuff.

NASA to Announce 'Significant Findings' of Water on Mars Tuesday
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
And Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 06:30 pm ET
01 March 2004

UPDATE: Story first posted 3:30 p.m. EST, March 1, 2004

NASA will hold a press conference Tuesday to announce "significant findings" about water on Mars based on evidence from its Opportunity Mars rover.

"It's going to be the most significant science results that we've had from the rovers, and it's bearing on their primary mission," NASA spokesperson Don Savage told SPACE.com . That mission is to find signs of water that might support life.

Images

In a small patch of Martian soil, scientists see spheres and fragmented pebbles, sand grains and finer material, and a range of colors suggesting different compositions.

Several images from Opportunity's microscopic camera were stitched together to reveal BB-sized spherical objects on the Martian soil. Credit: NASA/JPL

Opportunity made this close-up images of spherules embedded in the wall of a trench it dug with one wheel. These spheres are more reflective than those previously found on the Martian surface.

Opportunity's Microscopic Imager found this intriguing object, looking more like Rotini pasta. Its odd shape has stirred up Mars researchers, both inside and outside of the NASA Mars Rover Exploration team. Whether or not this object is related to biology has prompted a variety of views.

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Will the announcement change how we think about Mars?

"Anything of a significant nature has that possibility," Savage said. "Sure."

If there is liquid water presently at the surface of Mars, as several lines of rover evidence have hinted, then most scientists agree there is the possibility that life could exist. Water does not mean life, but it is the key ingredient that makes life possible.

Coherent picture

Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warmer and wet. And tremendous amounts of water are locked up as ice in the polar regions. The main question is whether any of that water remains at the surface in liquid form. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, are exploring opposite sides of the planet near the equator.

On Sunday SPACE.com reported a "palpable buzz" among Mars Exploration Rover (MER) scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Sources indicated that a coherent picture of the geology of the rover landing sites was emerging.

Speculation that the announcement might involve any discussion of biology has not been confirmed.

However, there have been repeated observations at the Opportunity site that have puzzled the Mars rover scientists. Using the rover’s Microscopic Imager, the strange spherules, thread-like features and even a larger object detected in rock outcrop have sparked scientific discussion -- both inside and outside of the Mars rover team -- as to whether they are tied to biology.

Poker-faced scientists

Last week at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California -- the control node and scientific nexus for both the Spirit and Opportunity rover work -- an air of excitement wafted through the facility.

Even from poker-faced scientists in-the-know about what "significant findings" are at the heart of tomorrow’s press briefing, mum was the word.

The teams of scientists that are engaged in rover operations are top-notch, said Ray Arvidson, Deputy Principal Investigator for the MER effort. "The best and brightest got here because they have been very careful about how they go about doing their science…and making sure they have data to bolster their arguments," he told SPACE.com .

Arvidson said that all sorts of arguments and hypotheses have been on the table, "from the ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal in terms of what’s been happening, particularly at the Opportunity site."

Awash in data

Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon at NASA Headquarters, said care is being taken to piece together the message from Mars as found by the rovers. Patience is required, he said.

Mars rover science teams are awash in data, Garvin told SPACE.com , "rushing to release every bit of data to the world, while moving on another world and making science-guided decisions about how to figure it all out in context."

Garvin said much of the data is new, and much of it requiring much more refined calibration and validation than pretty pictures.

Major press event

Until now, all post-landing rover science news has been revealed at press conferences held at JPL in Pasadena. A routine had been established and the next press conference was slated at JPL for later this week. But by the end of last week, word was that a "major press event" was being planned for early this week, to be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We didn't want to sit on this information for a long time," Savage said, adding that the scientists felt they "had gotten the information they needed."

The panel assembled for the press conference includes top brass and a cast of important science characters.

Speakers are: Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Space Science, Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon, Cornell University's Steve Squyres, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Principal Investigator, as well as MIT geologist John Grotzinger.

Also onboard to discuss the new Mars findings are Joy Crisp, JPL’s MER Project Scientist, and Benton Clark III, MER science team member and Chief Scientist of Space Exploration, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Astronautics Operations in Denver, Colorado.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m. ET and will be carried live on NASA television.

Sticky, clumping soil

Opportunity has been investigating the soil and a rock outcropping in a shallow depression at its Meridiani Planum landing site, which may once have been the site of a giant lake or ocean. The rocks are layered and may have formed as sediments settled in the bottom of an ancient lake or ocean, or as part of a river bed, but that is only one hypothesis.

Both Opportunity and Spirit have found sticky, clumping soil that scientists already said could contain water. Only small amounts of water, perhaps sucked from the atmosphere, would be needed to mix with salt in the soil and create a brine, which could exist in liquid form even in the frigid environment of Mars.

Opportunity also appears to sit amid a field of hematite, a mineral that typically -- but not always -- forms in the presence of water. The rover has also found countless BB-sized beads. The spherical objects might have formed in a water environment, the scientists have said before, but there could also be other explanations, including volcanism and meteor impacts.

The rovers have sent back a mountain of other data on rocks and soil that, as of late last week, had not been fully analyzed or in some cases had not yet been released.

The rovers landed in January and are schedule to explore Mars for at least three months. They could last into summer, however. The mission price tag is $820 million.

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[NormsRevenge]

In a small patch of Martian soil, scientists see spheres and fragmented pebbles, sand grains and finer material, and a range of colors suggesting different compositions.

[Joe Hadenuf]

That's is what I think it is. It's about the water IMO. That alone would be earth shattering in my opinion, and would certainly raise the possibilities of eventually finding life, past or present.

[NormsRevenge]

In a small patch of Martian soil, scientists see spheres and fragmented pebbles, sand grains and finer material, and a range of colors suggesting different compositions.

What are those 2 things at the top right of the photo?

The linear patterns are interesting.

[null and void]

Some see a trilobite in the upper right corner.

I'm holding one "just like it" In my hand.

Or am I?

[NormsRevenge]

Oceans ? on Mars? once upon a time, maybe? pingaroo

[NormsRevenge]

I'm sure there are better shots of them too,,,

Thanks, they're a ringer almost! It has a trilobite-like pattern altho it kind of looks like writing in a way too. lol ;-\

[NormsRevenge]

Opportunity's Microscopic Imager found this intriguing object, looking more like Rotini pasta. Its odd shape has stirred up Mars researchers, both inside and outside of the NASA Mars Rover Exploration team. Whether or not this object is related to biology has prompted a variety of views.