Mars could have supported life: Ten years on Mars leads to livable mud
The findings were announced in a special 'Exploring Mars Habitability' edition of the journal Science released today to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Mars Opportunity Rover and its twin, Spirit, landing on the red planet.
CSIRO's Dr Paulo de Souza, who is on the science team led by Cornell University's Professor Steven Squyres, said a major focus on NASA's decade of research on Mars surface was whether the planet may ever have been habitable.
"While Mars is too cold now to have the liquid water needed for life, we've had evidence for past water activity on the planet from satellite images of valleys and analysis of rocks by the Rovers," Dr de Souza said.
"If there was ever life on Mars, then this would have been the mud for it to live in."
"But the water that once shaped those landscapes and minerals was as acidic as vinegar.
"Our latest research has found not only the earliest episode of water activity documented yet by the Opportunity Rover, but that the geochemistry of the 4 billion year old rocks indicates extensive deposits of past water that's among the freshest, most life-sustaining found so far anywhere on Mars.
"If there was ever life on Mars, then this would have been the mud for it to live in."
Dr de Souza is a Science Leader at CSIRO in micro-sensors and has worked with NASA since the Mars Exploration Rover Program began, having collaborated with NASA's research teams for many years.
Dr de Souza is very proud of the Opportunity Rover, a golf buggy-sized all-terrain vehicle also known as 'Oppy', whose tenth birthday is today.
"She's a brave little Rover and she's way past warranty," he said.
"Opportunity's Mars mission was expected to last just months but she's still going strong 10 years on with no signs of stopping. She's travelled 38km instead of the few hundred metres planned.
"Along the way, Oppy's collected invaluable information about Mars' surface with her high tech toolkit of rock scrapers, chemical sensors, and spectral analysers."
Oppy's been beaming a decade's worth of data back to space receiving stations on Earth, including the Canberra Deep Space Communication Centre outside Canberra at Tidbinbilla managed by CSIRO.
"Thanks to the Rovers, we now have a much richer knowledge of our nearest planet and where to focus our future search for microfossils, present water and other signs of life," Dr de Souza said.
Welcome to SUV System Ltd!
SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences.
We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our years of professional service.
SUV System Ltd is Electronic Components Distributor Supplies,Find Quality Electronic Components Supplies Products IC(Integrated Circuits),Connectors,Capacitor,Resistors,Diodes,Transistors,LED at Suvsystem.com. Sourcing Other Energy, Environment, Excess Inventory Products from Manufacturers and Suppliers at Suvsystem.com
Electronic Components distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com
Connectors Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Connectors-1.html
IC Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/IC(Integrated-Circuits)-1.html
LED Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/LED-1.html
Capacitor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Capacitor-1.html
Transistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Transistors-1.html
Resistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Resistors-1.html
Diode Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Diodes-1.html
SUV System Ltd insists on the managing faith ofsincereness,speciality,foresight, win-win,so we build up stable-relationship customers located all over the world, including the States, Europe, Argentina, UAE, Malaysia, Australia,and India etc
we are focus on the following fields,and hope we can help you.
IR Diodes HARRIS IC AVX Resistors Fleld Effect Transistors SANYO IC IDT IC Switches Resistor Networks IR transistor Atmel IC LED part ALTERA IC PANASONIC Civil IC Xilinx IC About US Military IC Multi-units Transistors Thick Film Resistors LITTELFUSE Diodes NEC Transistors Freescale Semiconductor Other Parts High Precision Resistors Switching Diodes ELPIDA IC AD IC Current Sensors Resistors Thin Film Resistors ON Diodes Resistor Arrays TI IC Dialight LED ROHM Resistors TDK IC TOSHIBA Diodes Texas Instruments(TI) IC Diodes Resistors ON Transistors
http://www.suvsystem.com/a/9657.aspx
