'Strongest' evidence yet of water on Mars

[Still Waters]

A Nasa rover scouting for signs of past water on Mars has found the strongest evidence yet - a vein of gypsum, a mineral deposited by water, protruding from an ancient rock.

The rover, called Opportunity, and its twin, Spirit, arrived on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004.Over the years, the rovers, aided by several orbiting spacecraft, have returned a convincing body of evidence that Mars was not always as cold and dry as it is today.

The most convincing proof, unveiled this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, is a thin vein of gypsum laced inside and protruding from an ancient rock along the rim of a 96-mile (154 km) wide crater called Endeavour.

Gypsum - commonly known as plaster of Paris - typically forms from water flowing through rock.

"This is the single most bullet-proof observation that I can think of that we've made this entire mission," Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, lead researcher for Nasa's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, told Reuters.

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[spud the mackem]

I hope the water on Mars doesn't contain all the crappy chemicals that earth water has.

[27vet]

I hope the water on Mars doesn't contain all the crappy chemicals that earth water has.

Give mankind time....

[Capt Snowflake]

Look more like bricks

[Swadwa]

Well, I'll wait for the strongest evidence... the discovery of WATER!

[d e v i c e]

Well, as we all know, water is present on Mars in its crystal form - ice. But in liquid form? Yes, that's another thing.

[ROGER]

Would the asteroid strike in this article have caused enough mass to leave mars entirely thus leaving not enough mass to hold an atmosphere as thick as ours. Then the solar winds blew off the water over time back in to space?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=giant-asteroid-flattened

Edited December 11, 2011 by ROGER

[Dalmacija]

NASA is suspecting that there is water on the Mars.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04aug_marsflows/