Printer friendly version Life on Mars? Mars Rover Opportunity
finds some of the necessary conditions once existed 04 May 2012
Tübingen Geoscientist Dr. Christian Schröder is part of a team
which today revealed exciting new information garnered from
information sent back from Mars. Late last year, the NASA Mars
Rover Opportunity found what appeared to be veins of gypsum when
examining the edge of the crater dubbed “Endeavour.” Gypsum is
formed in water at a temperature lower than 60°C. Its presence
on Mars indicates that conditions conducive to life have existed
there at least temporarily. The rock of the crater edge is
similar to suevite, a rock consisting partly of melted material
which is typically found at meteor impact sites. The results of
the study, led by Steve Squyres at Cornell University in Ithaca,
New York have just been published in Science. Christian
Schröder’s research at Tübingen’s Center for Applied Geoscience
focuses on the biochemistry of iron minerals. Since the start of
the NASA Mars Explo