May 23 2008
From The Space Library
A team of researchers announced in the journal Science that they had found on Mars soil deposits composed of more than 90 percent silica. NASA’s Spirit rover had found the deposits in the Columbia Hills in Mars’s Gusev Crater. Initially, scientists had used Spirit’s Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to identify a pure silica deposit in the groove that Spirit’s broken front wheel had made as it dragged through the dirt. Subsequently, they had found other silica deposits nearby. On Earth, pure silica forms from the interaction of hot water and rock. Therefore, the scientists believed that these deposits might indicate that Mars had possessed hydrothermal vents in its ancient past. Because hydrothermal vents support microbial life on Earth, scientists believed that similar vents on Mars might also have hosted life.
Andrea Thompson, “Hydrothermal Vents on Mars Could Have Supported Life,” Space.com, 23 May 2008, http://www.space.com/5374-hydrothermal-vents-mars-supported-life.html (accessed 16 March 2001); see also S. W. Squyres et al., “Detection of Silica-Rich Deposits on Mars,” Science 320, no. 5879 (23 May 2008): 1063-1067.
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