NASA scientists find perchlorates in Martian soil |
News - Science News | |||
Written by Hugh | |||
Warning: mktime(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08az/b29/ipw.wellbeyo/public_html/libraries/joomla/utilities/date.php on line 119 Warning: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08az/b29/ipw.wellbeyo/public_html/libraries/joomla/utilities/date.php on line 247 Warning: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08az/b29/ipw.wellbeyo/public_html/libraries/joomla/utilities/date.php on line 251 Warning: strftime(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08az/b29/ipw.wellbeyo/public_html/libraries/joomla/utilities/date.php on line 252 Tuesday, 19 August 2008 13:27 |
|||
In a somewhat surprising announcement, the NASA team monitoring the Mars Phoenix Lander has announced the identification of perchlorate in Martian soil. The compound, which contains oxygen and chlorine, is found in soil on Earth; the best known location is in the high Chilean Atacama desert. Despite its inhospitable climate, scientists have found bacterial life in this Chilean outpost. The most obvious candidate for the source of the perchlorate compound is the Lander itself. Perchlorates, which can be explosive under certain circumstances, are found in some rocket fuels. Contamination from the Lander itself is considered unlikely by the Mars team, which means that perchlorate is indigenous to the Red Planet. Perchlorates tend to be stable under most conditions in soil. Of course, the big question is how did perchlorate compounds originate on Mars. This topic should create some interesting and even heated discussions among scientists.
|