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Mars NASA Space Science

NASA Scientists Find Evidence of Water In Martian Meteorite 41

Posted by Soulskill from the water-the-chances dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists at NASA and JPL have found evidence of past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite, reviving debate over life on Mars. 'In this new study, Gibson and his colleagues focused on structures deep within a 30-pound (13.7-kilogram) Martian meteorite known as Yamato 000593 (Y000593). The team reports that newly discovered different structures and compositional features within the larger Yamato meteorite suggest biological processes might have been at work on Mars hundreds of millions of years ago. ... Analyses found that the rock was formed about 1.3 billion years ago from a lava flow on Mars. Around 12 million years ago, an impact occurred on Mars which ejected the meteorite from the surface of Mars. The meteorite traveled through space until it fell in Antarctica about 50,000 years ago.'"
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NASA Scientists Find Evidence of Water In Martian Meteorite More

NASA Scientists Find Evidence of Water In Martian Meteorite

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  • Then that's how it all started. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    We are all martians

  • I read the title and thought they'd actually found water, only to find out it was hundreds of millions of years ago that it was there.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Thantik ( 1207112 )
      The title isn't misleading at all, you're simply lacking reading comprehension. My 6 year old has better reading comprehension than you do. Evidence by its very nature is generally something that is produced or an after effect of some other process. A scratch on a car door is evidence that something harder than the surface scraped against it. You don't need the key that did it to say that the scratch is evidence of it....

  • Obsession (Score:1, Troll)

    by trewornan ( 608722 )
    Jeebus NASA give it a rest can't you - you've been and looked and there ain't no life on Mars - just let it go already.
    • They seem obsessed with saving Dan Quayle's personal image...
    • give it a rest wright brothers, you have been trying forever and you just wont ever fly....

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by hebertrich ( 472331 )

      Frankly ,there's nothing on Mars alive today . Even if there has been 100 millions years ago , we're still alone. It don't change a thing in our lives.
      Scientific interrest is the only interest. As a human being we got troubles here that need a lot more attention and focusing to solve.
      Check Ukraine being invaded by the Soviets. Check wars all around. Do we really want extraterrestrials to see us under that kind of light ?
      Warmongering , selfish, murderous ? I'd rather we take the cash from all those studie

      • nonsense, no amount of U.S. money will solve problem of why Russia (not soviets, no such thing any more) is going to invade Ukraine.

        the minuscule amount of money spent on space exploration hurts nothing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rossdee ( 243626 )

        " Check wars all around. Do we really want extraterrestrials to see us under that kind of light ?"

        We would want a war;ike race like the martians to see us like that, then they might think twice about invading us.
        Then they might go to Saturns rings to get their water rather than here.

      • this is incredibly short-sighted. exploration of Mars and our Solar System can and often does lead to advancements with practical scientific applications. better and more efficient energy sources. better ways to grow food. even the potential for colonizing planets like Mars in the future. these benefit humanity on an enormous scale. the only falsehood here is claiming that humans can't tackle both immediate geopolitical conflicts and longer-reaching scientific advancement. we should be doing both.
    • The probes/rovers/landers have/had electron microscopes?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xicor ( 2738029 )
      they traveled the surface of mars... but thats not to say that there isnt water somewhere underneath the surface.

  • So why can't they find this stuff on mars? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Saturday March 01, 2014 @11:42AM (#46376047) Journal
    It's not like we don't have what are essentially remote science laboratories that we've sent there which should theoretically be able to find this sort of stuff in the samples they collect.

    • It's not like we don't have what are essentially remote science laboratories that we've sent there which should theoretically be able to find this sort of stuff in the samples they collect.

      Actually it is like that. Because nothing we've sent there can look inside a good-sized rock with that degree of non-destructive precision and delicacy.

  • Yes, fine, geez. There was once water on Mars! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dr. Spork ( 142693 ) on Saturday March 01, 2014 @01:16PM (#46376667)

    How many times do we get to "discover" that bears actually do shit in the woods?

    (This is years after we've seen clear pictures of Martian flood plains, with obvious river channels. This is years after we've detected signals for hydrogen under the Martian surface. This is years after models of solar system history basically make the conclusion inescapable that early on, Mars would have had to have liquid water. And I could go on.)

    • How many times do we get to "discover" that bears actually do shit in the woods?

      The point in this case is that they're suggesting that we're seeing evidence not just of water, but of biological activity. You are able to see the difference, right? It's like discovering that bears not only shit in the woods, but that they also have toilet paper and elaborate sewage treatment facilities hidden in their caves. Or would be, if this evidence actually points to more-than-just-water conclusion.

  • Pressure to influence money sources.

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