Martian Opal Connection
December 18th 2008 23:56
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Image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of what could be a vast mineral deposit
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its one of its prime objectives since, within its two-year science mission. The spacecraft has
found signs of a complex Martian climate change that produced a diversity of past watery
The orbiter has provided much valuable information, we have learned a great deal more in the last few years on the conditions and geology of Mars since studies were undertaken some 150 years ago. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned 73 terabits of science data, more than all earlier Mars missions put together. The spacecraft will undertake more study of the planet as it continues to examine Mars in unprecedented detail during its next two year mission.
Among the major findings during the primary science mission is the revelation that the action of water on and near the surface of Mars occurred for hundreds of millions of years. This activity was at least regional and perhaps global in extent, although possibly intermittent. The spacecraft also observed that signatures of a variety of
watery environments, some acidic, some alkaline, increase the possibility that there are places on Mars that could reveal evidence of past life, that may have existed.
Since moving into position some 200 kilometers above Mars' surface in October 2006, the orbiter also has conducted numerous targeted observation sequences of high-priority areas. It has imaged nearly 40 percent of the planet at a resolution that can reveal house-sized objects in detail. This survey has covered almost 60 percent of Mars in mineral mapping bands at stadium-size resolution. The orbiter also assembled nearly 700 daily global weather maps, dozens of atmospheric temperature profiles, and hundreds of radar profiles of the subsurface and the interior of the polar caps.
The probe, indicates Mars may have been wet for a billion years longer than
previously thought. The orbiter has found what look like deposits of gem like material rich in silica-based deposits. According to NASA that there are outcrops of rich opal like material. "We see numerous outcrops of opal-like minerals around the rim of Valles Marineris and sometimes within the canyon system itself," said Ralph Milliken with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
So pack up your shovels and head for Mars to strike it rich. you may just find a boulder that is pure opal!!
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Fascinating stuff, CarlCan! Burroughs got me hooked on Mars many years ago and now you're reeling me in again! LOL
Comment by Damo
Love them.
Good stuff
Comment by Paul
Surreal Short Stories
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Thank you all for making a comment.
Mars is one of my favourite planets so many new revelations and more to come.
Paul's comment I found interesting. It is amazing what the mind can do when it is free form conventional thoughs. with authors like Burroughs and H.G. Wells