Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

reply to post by taoistguy


"i'll take him a couple of these moving rocks back as pets. he'll like that."

reply to post by taoistguy

Yep.
And I'll raise my whiskey glass as I watch her in my 3D vid tank.

No word from NASA yet then?
They must have more idea about it now than they did when it was first discovered so why not just give us their thoughts. Maybe they are as bemused as we are?

Here you go. Just put quotes around parts I thought were interesting. What it tells them - there was water on mars and is or was life on mars now (microbe life).

"From the ongoing stream of data coming down, the dark red stuff appears to be "iron manganese oxide of some kind," while the surrounding white part "represents some kind of sulfate," Arvidson suggested at month's end. "These are all minerals and elements soluble in water." It could be Pinnacle Island is "an ancient water-laid deposit" from the Noachian Period some 4 billion years ago, "or it could be from a more recent period," he added."

""We're completely confused and having a wonderful time," summed up Squyres."


"In brief, the MER science team, led by Arvidson, the first author of the paper, concluded that billions of years ago, an ancient wet environment that was milder, warmer, wetter, and older than any the rover had previously found could have offered a habitat for life to emerge. The MER researchers based their conclusions on the evidence of clay minerals, in the form of iron-rich smectite and a more aluminous smectite that Opportunity ground-truthed at Matijevic Hill, and believe the wet conditions that produced these smectites preceded the formation of the Endeavor Crater about 4 billion years ago."

"Additionally, the MER scientists found evidence for more aluminous smectites in the fractures of what are known now as Matijevic Formation rocks. "Compositional data for fractures in the layered rocks suggest formation of aluminum-rich smectites by aqueous leaching," they wrote. "Evidence is thus preserved for water-rock interactions before and after the impact, with aqueous environments of slightly acidic to circum-neutral pH that would have been more favorable for prebiotic chemistry and microorganisms than those recorded by younger sulfate-rich rocks at Meridiani Planum.""


"Once the rover finishes the examination of Pinnacle Island, the plan calls for it to back up and take a look at the possible places from where Pinnacle Island and the other little stones popped out to fall into Opportunity's view – its solar arrays have been blocking the suspected part of the hill from view. Then, with the best winter power levels this rover has had in three Martian winters, averaging just above 350 watt-hours more than 1/3 of its full capability, Opportunity will move on to another exposed outcrop in Cook Haven, just 3 meters away. Called Green Island, this outcrop also hints of clay minerals."

www.planetary.org...

I forgot to say - in the above update that there is a human to mars mission planned for 2030 - Phages daughter needs to start studying that math.

reply to post by Dianec


that's great work, Dianec.
does anyone else feel like we're being spoonfed the big news - slowly?
this all seems a bit to contrived to me.

reply to post by Dianec


and working out down the gym.

reply to post by Dianec

that's great work, Dianec.
does anyone else feel like we're being spoonfed the big news - slowly?
this all seems a bit to contrived to me.


Reply
I just found it and shared it - it's really exciting isn't it? I haven't read the actual journal article yet - where I'm sure more details are forthcoming. To me this news is pretty big - evidence of minerals on mars - possibly even present minerals. This could mean water is also present today - trickling just below the surface perhaps. Getting through all of the science of it is tricky for me - I have to trust their interpretations, but I bet anyone who knows their rocks could read what they found to see if more can be be deciphered. When they turn opportunity around - and hopefully examine the spot where this rock came from we may very well find outreply to post by Dianec




reply to post by Dianec


and working out down the gym.


Reply
Haha. Very good advice. I say - don't think math = hard. Think math = flying to mars. Man - I wish I could do stuff like that more. I have to read when they plan to do that again so I can be watching.

Dianec
Here you go. Just put quotes around parts I thought were interesting. What it tells them - there was water on mars and is or was life on mars now (microbe life).

The idea "there was liquid water was on Mars, and perhaps still is (beneath the soil)" has been known about for some time.

A couple of years ago (back in 2011) the rover "Opportunity" found a vein of gypsum rock. That rock told them that there was a time when Mars was very wet, because gypsum forms under wet conditions. Scientists had a lot of evidence that Mars once had a lot of water for years before that gypsum was found, but the discovery of the gypsum "sealed the deal" by providing hard evidence (i.e., a rock that required the presences of water to form.)

Slam Dunk" Sign of Ancient Water on Mars

However, I'm not sure where you are getting that liquid water = life. Sure -- liquid water being present on Mars for the first several hundred Million years of Mars' existence could mean that life may have gotten a start sometime in Mars' history, but it is not necessarily so.

"...with aqueous environments of slightly acidic to circum-neutral pH that would have been more favorable for prebiotic chemistry and microorganisms than those recorded by younger sulfate-rich rocks at Meridiani Planum.""

This is interesting. This is another sign that some of the water on mars had been more neutral water, which is good for life (as we know it). The rover "Opportunity" found additional signs of neutral water last year. It found a type of clay that can only form in low-acid (or pH neutral) water.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Thank you for that information. I believe I had heard about them theorizing there had been water there. I think I get the part about life because I think of fungus, and the possibility that and other microbes may have found those conditions favorable. If there is water however, I'm sure that doesn't always mean life can exist so would need to study that more (need for oxygen, other elements). I wrongly assumed water most likely means life. It can still be a long shot.

isn't clay a giveaway for life to have existed?

taoistguy
isn't clay a giveaway for life to have existed?

No, clay can be completely mineral, but I think it's always a result of water erosion.

reply to post by ArMaP


ok. thanks. i should have paid more attention during chemistry class instead of writing little notes to laura davies.

Researchers have determined the now-infamous Martian rock resembling a jelly doughnut, dubbed Pinnacle Island, is a piece of a larger rock broken and moved by the wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in early January.

Update

reply to post by Zarniwoop


at last , they've thrown us a titbit..



not much else tho

funBox

reply to post by funbox

not much else tho

Yeah there is. As I said before, there are those tubes sticking out from under the surface of the soil right there in that picture.