Spirit Data Re-analysis Finds Water Signs at 32 Mars Soil Sites
Updated
Updated · starlust.org · Aug 4
Spirit Data Re-analysis Finds Water Signs at 32 Mars Soil Sites
3 articles · Updated · starlust.org · Aug 4
Summary
A new re-analysis of NASA Spirit rover readings found crystalline hematite and altered magnetite across 32 soil sites in Gusev Crater, strengthening evidence that water once covered significant parts of Mars.
Paulo de Souza combined Spirit measurements collected from 2004 to 2010 into the most detailed iron-mineral profile yet for ordinary Martian soil, exposing signals too weak to confirm in individual scans.
The minerals matter because they typically form when rock interacts with water, and hematite had been assumed absent from these soils under the rover's original time, power and instrument limits.
Published in Springer Nature's Interactions, the study adds to earlier findings of water-altered rocks in Columbia Hills and long-lived lakes and streams at Gale Crater.
The result broadens the case that Mars was once far wetter than today as NASA's Perseverance continues probing Jezero Crater and older terrain for signs of past habitability.