And Now, the Younger, Dry Side of Mars Is Coming Out

摘要

The news from Mars lately has been all wet: a shallow, salty sea where the rover Opportunity landed, and rock-rotting groundwater, at least, where Spirit is roaming in Gusev Crater's Columbia Hills (Science, 17 December 2004, p. 2010). Although the planet was indeed drenched in potentially life-giving water, it didn't stay that way long, according to papers published online this week by Science (www.scienceexpress.org). In the papers, 39 researchers led by Jean-Pierre Bibring of the University of Paris, Orsay, report their first results from the miner-alogical mapper OMEGA (Obser-vatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, la Glace, et l'Activite) orbiting Mars on board the European Mars Express spacecraft.