SAN FRANCISCO — The lame wheel on the NASA Mars rover Spirit has turned up evidence of a once-habitable environment, scientists said Monday. They reported their findings here at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
The right front wheel of Spirit stopped turning in March 2006. Since then, the rover has been driving backward, dragging the lame wheel along. Last May, scientists noticed a bright spot in the wheel’s trail of overturned dirt.
They turned Spirit around for a closer look, finding high levels of silica, the main ingredient of window glass. On Earth, such high concentrations of silica can form in only two places: a hot spring or a fumarole — an environment, often near a volcano, where acidic steam rises through cracks. On Earth, both environments teem with life.
The New York Times
