This image shows some of the soils of Mars from the Viking 2
landing site, Utopia Planitia. Click on image for full size The
first analysis of Mars' soil from Viking landers found no
evidence of life, instead showing that organic molecules are
even more scarce than on the Earth's moon. The Viking missions
did confirm the presence of water in the soils and atmosphere,
in both solid and vapor form. The soils found near the rocks
explored by Mars Pathfinder's Rover were similar to those found
by Viking I (check the large topographic map of Mars for the
distances between these two landing sites), even though the
rocks were not. At the Viking landing site the rocks were
commonly coated with a bright red dust, while at Ares Vallis,
these rocks were rare. Instead the rocks seemed to be mostly
dark gray in color. This suggests that soils of Mars may be the
same throughout the globe, perhaps carried all over Mars by
global dust storms. Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
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