Water found on Mars! Good news today. Water ice is found on martian soil just below the surface.
NASA had confirmed the finding on this page (on July 31st 08) , the discovery was made by Phoenix lander that was digging up the martian soil. NASA's website says, "We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted." Phoenix Lander The Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) is a combination of a high-temperature furnace with a mass spectrometer on board Phoenux lander. It will be used to bake samples of Martian dust, and determine the content of this dust. It has eight ovens, each about the size of a large ball-point pen, which will be able to analyze one sample each, for a total of eight separate samples. TEGA is the instrument that found water ice. The fact is that ice had been found on mars for some time, but scientists believed it is co2 ice (dry ice, not water ice since 1966). That belief was first challenged in 2002 by Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey probes. New infrared measurements from the newly arrived Mars Odyssey show that the lower material heats up, as water ice is expected to do in the Martian summer, and that the polar cap is too warm to be dry ice. [proof] On July 16th, it was reported that Mars contained sediment minerals that are proof of earlier flow of water. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), to investigate clay like minerals and came up with this. A color-enhanced image of the delta in Jezero crater, a past lake on Mars. Researchers led by Brown graduate student Bethany Ehlmann report that ancient rivers ferried clay-like minerals (shown in green) into the lake, forming the delta. The clays then were trapped, meaning they could store past life. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University Last month, Phoenix lander took these photos of what seemed to be ice.But, it was confirmed as ice few days back, after TEGA results came. (Day 20 and Day 24 on mars) Now that we have water on mars, future missions to mars could rely on that water for oxygen extraction by electolysis, which could also provide hydrogen to be used as a fuel. Labels: mars, water posted by bharath at 1:27 AM http://www.bharath.name/2008/07/seminar-at-stjoseph-college-on-web.html Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/invite/
