The search is over; NASA's Curiosity rover has finally found water on Mars.
"One of the most exciting results from this very first solid sample ingested by Curiosity is the high percentage of water in the soil. About [two] percent of the soil on the surface of Mars is made up of water, which is a great resource, and interesting scientifically." The sample also released significant carbon dioxide, oxygen, and sulfur compounds when heated," study leader and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Dean of Science Laurie Leshin, said, a Rensselaer press release reported.
Scientists have been wondering if life was ever possible on Mars for generations, and now we may be one step closer to finding the answer.
Curiosity went to Mars equipped with tools to test the physical environment and detect an array of chemical compounds. One of those tools was
"This work not only demonstrates that SAM is working beautifully on Mars, but also shows how SAM fits into Curiosity's powerful and comprehensive suite of scientific instruments," Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator for SAM at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said. "By combining analyses of water and other volatiles from SAM with mineralogical, chemical, and geological data from Curiosity's other instruments, we have the most comprehensive information ever obtained on [Martian] surface fines. These data greatly advance our understanding of surface processes and the action of water on Mars."
"This is the first solid sample that we've analyzed with the instruments on Curiosity. It's the very first scoop of stuff that's been fed into the analytical suite. Although this is only the beginning of the story, what we've learned is substantial," Leshin said.
The researchers collected sediment from a Martian area known as "Rocknest," they heated one of the "scoops" to 835 degrees Celsius. The sample was found to contain a compound containing chlorine and oxygen as well as carbonate materials that are spawned when water is present.
The research helped researchers determine the composition of the red planet's surface as well as open up the door for future research.
"Mars has kind of a global layer, a layer of surface soil that has been mixed and distributed by frequent dust storms. So a scoop of this stuff is basically a microscopic Mars rock collection," Leshin said. "If you mix many grains of it together, you probably have an accurate picture of typical [Martian] crust. By learning about it in any one place, you're learning about the entire planet."
The Mars explorers also found a rock that "Jake M." that may have been formed under high heat and pressure, a NASA press release reported.
"No other Martian rock is so similar to terrestrial igneous rocks," Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology, lead author of a report about this analysis, said. "This is surprising because previously studied igneous rocks from Mars differ substantially from terrestrial rocks and from Jake M."
