January 01, 2004
Arizona Water Resources
,
Joe Gelt ed.
12 vol.
,
no. 4
,
16 pp.
,
Water Resources Research Center
,
Tucson, AZ
The quest to discover signs of water on Mars continues, with Opportunity, one of the two Mars Exploration Rovers, sending back images of the planet soil. At bottom left of the photo at right is a magnified look at martian soil showing spherical pebbles among the mix of particles. One of the explanations to account for thepebbles' round shape is accretion under water. A mineral map of Opportunity's surroundings offered a more significant sign of water. It indicated concentrations of a coarse-grained hematite. Hematite usually forms in association with liquid water.