|
There's Water on Mars, NASA Confirms |
|
|
|
Written by Dragana Dimitrijevic
|
|
Friday, 01 August 2008 |
|
Here is big news posted by John Johnson JR., Los Angeles Times Staff Writer about NASA’s research.
| Quote: |
After weeks of testing the soil in the Martian arctic, NASA's Phoenix
lander has for the first time confirmed through chemical analysis the
presence of water on another planet, scientists said Thursday.
Several weeks ago, Phoenix uncovered convincing visual evidence that it
had landed on an ice field when it set down on Mars' northern plain May
25.
Pictures
beamed back to Earth across 200 million miles showed white streaks in
the lumpy soil around the lander, and a tool on the lander's robotic
arm had shaved off chunks of the material that scientists were certain
was ice.
On Thursday, the Phoenix team - consisting of scientists
from NASA and the University of Arizona - presented evidence that
material baked in one of Phoenix's eight tiny ovens was indeed water,
the first time any spacecraft from Earth had tasted the life-giving
substance on another world.
The evidence came from a mass
spectrometer on Phoenix's thermal and evolved-gas analyzer, or TEGA.
When heated, the targeted material in the soil melted at the expected
temperature, which Phoenix scientist William Boynton called definitive
proof.
"The fact that it melted at 0 degrees centigrade leaves very
little doubt" that it is water, said Boynton, speaking at a news
conference in Tucson. |
You can read full article HERE .
|
Misc. 