Dec 18 2008
From The Space Library
At the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting, a team of scientists led by Bethany L. Ehlmann of Brown University announced that they had found carbonate minerals in Martian bedrock. The team had used the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM) on NASA’s MRO to observe carbonate exposures in the Isidis basin, particularly along the trough system known as Nili Fossae. Carbonates form when carbon dioxide and water interact with calcium, iron, or magnesium in volcanic rocks. Because carbonates dissolve quickly in acid, their presence indicated that Mars had once possessed neutral or alkaline water. A nonacidic environment would have favored ancient life forms. Previous researchers had found carbonates in Martian soil or dust, but the presence of carbonates in bedrock indicated that they might have formed over extended periods during Mars’s early history. The journal Science planned to publish the study’s findings in its 19 December 2008 edition.
NASA, “Scientists Find ‘Missing’ Mineral and Clues to Mars Mysteries,” news release 08-331, 18 December 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/dec/HQ_08-331_Mars_minerals.html; see also Bethany L. Ehlmann et al., “Orbital Identification of Carbonate-Bearing Rocks on Mars,” Science 322, no. 5909 (19 December 2008): 1828-1832.
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