Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.0902s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #09.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.493
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring Mars since January 2004, conducting observations with the Athena science payload. Together they have traversed more than 15 km. Both rovers have found evidence for aqueous processes on the martian surface. Spirit, located on the floor of Gusev crater, has spent most of its mission investigating rocks in the Columbia Hills. These rocks are largely granular in nature and range from breccias to finely laminated deposits. Geochemical and mineralogical data indicate significant aqueous alteration relative to the younger and more pristine plains basalts at Spirit's landing site.
Opportunity has carried out the first outcrop-scale investigation of ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars. Based on orbital data the deposits are 300 m thick in the vicinity of the landing site and sit disconformably on the dissected Noachian cratered terrains. The rocks, exposed in craters and along fissures in Meridiani Planum, are sandstones formed by wind and water erosion and re-deposition of mixed fine grained siliciclastics and sulfates. The stratigraphic section observed to date is dominated by eolian bedforms, with subaqueous current ripples exposed near the top of the section. While liquid water was present at Meridiani below and occasionally at the surface, the environmental conditions recorded there are dominantly arid, acidic and oxidizing, and would have posed some significant challenges to the origin of life.
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