The Curiosity Rover just found water on Mars
Of course, this isn't the first sign of water on the red planet. Back in June, Curiosity scooped up a rock specimen that contained a type of clay only be formed in neutral water telling scientists that Mars was once home to running water. And of course, scientists have long suspected water once existed on the planet due to various formations across the Martian landscape. In fact, it's widely believed that water existed in abundance on Mars, perhaps just as prominently as it does on Earth.
The discovery is important for a number of reasons, but especially exciting because of what this means for future missions to Mars. "We now know there should be abundant, easily accessible water on Mars," says Leshin. "When we send people, they could scoop up the soil anywhere on the surface, heat it just a bit, and obtain water." She makes it life on Mars sound so easy; now we just have to figure out how to get around that the quantity of deadly radiation we'll encounter on the trip over. [Science via The Guardian]
Update (5pm): We reached out to Dean Leshin to ask what the discovery of water meant for the larger question of life on Mars, and she replied with a shade of optimism:
Although we found water bound up in the soil particles, it's still pretty dry. Also, we didn't find evidence of organic molecules in the soil. So, this doesn't have a very big bearing on the life on Mars discussion. However, we now know that our instruments are working beautifully, and our next step is to drill into rocks that may have been better places to preserve evidence or organics and of wet environments that could be suitable for life.
Source http://gizmodo.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-just-found-water-in-martian-soil-1403908591
Of course, this isn't the first sign of water on the red planet. Back in June, Curiosity scooped up a rock specimen that contained a type of clay only be formed in neutral water telling scientists that Mars was once home to running water. And of course, scientists have long suspected water once existed on the planet due to various formations across the Martian landscape. In fact, it's widely believed that water existed in abundance on Mars, perhaps just as prominently as it does on Earth.
The discovery is important for a number of reasons, but especially exciting because of what this means for future missions to Mars. "We now know there should be abundant, easily accessible water on Mars," says Leshin. "When we send people, they could scoop up the soil anywhere on the surface, heat it just a bit, and obtain water." She makes it life on Mars sound so easy; now we just have to figure out how to get around that the quantity of deadly radiation we'll encounter on the trip over. [Science via The Guardian]
Update (5pm): We reached out to Dean Leshin to ask what the discovery of water meant for the larger question of life on Mars, and she replied with a shade of optimism:
Although we found water bound up in the soil particles, it's still pretty dry. Also, we didn't find evidence of organic molecules in the soil. So, this doesn't have a very big bearing on the life on Mars discussion. However, we now know that our instruments are working beautifully, and our next step is to drill into rocks that may have been better places to preserve evidence or organics and of wet environments that could be suitable for life.
Source http://gizmodo.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-just-found-water-in-martian-soil-1403908591