May 22 2009
From The Space Library
Based on data that NASA’s rover Opportunity had collected in the Victoria impact crater, researchers reported new findings in the journal Science, providing further evidence that water had once existed on Mars. Before arriving at Victoria, Opportunity had explored the Eagle and Endurance craters, revealing distinctive sediment layers in Endurance, along with evidence that water had been a factor in actively shaping those layers. Scientists had decided to send Opportunity to Victoria because of the crater’s 400-foot (122-meter) depth. They hoped that exploration of Victoria would shed more light on the Meridiani Planum region. Opportunity had spent two years driving along the crater’s edge and then had traveled down into the crater. The rover had found layers of sulfate-rich sandstone like that of the Endurance crater, “with evidence that water had weathered away minerals in the rocks, then evaporated, leaving behind salts that eventually solidified into rocks again.” The findings indicated that water had acted at both the Endurance and the Victoria sites, suggesting that water had acted across the entire Meridiani region. Steven W. Squyres of Cornell University, Lead Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, remarked that this evidence was probably the most significant finding of the Victoria expedition.
Andrea Thompson, “Entire Region of Mars Likely Shaped by Water,” Space.com, 21 May 2009, http://www.space.com/6739-entire-region-mars-shaped-water.html (accessed 22 July 2011); Jessica Berman, “NASA Scientists Find More Evidence of Water on Mars,” Voice of America, 22 May 2009.
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