Friday, March 21, 2014

Water on Mars!

The image above is of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite before it was installed in the Curiosity rover. This instrument analyzed soil samples on Mars and discovered water traces.

NASA's Curiosity rover has done it again; Curiosity has found some more interesting samples on our beautiful Red Planet, water! Water has never seemed so exciting and it only gets better, Curiosity's SAM discovered that about two percent of Mars's surface is made up of water. Aside from discovering water, Curiosity analyzed a small sample of soil from a sandy area, known as Rocknest, and heated the sample to over 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The sample proved to contain chlorine, oxygen and carbonated materials which form in the presence of water. So what does this all mean? Well, Curiosity found several elements that are essential to life and now water. Mars could have once supported life, all we need if evidence from Curiosity.

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