These trenches on Mars glisten with white spots of ice. White House Briefed On Potential For Mars Life Craig Covault Aviation Week & Space Technology “The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the ‘potential for life’ on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology. “Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery […]

As Phoenix settles down to begin its search for organic compounds on Mars, a new study indicates that the oceans that once covered Mars were far too briny to support life as we know it. “Our sense has been that while Mars is a lousy environment for supporting life today, long ago it might have more closely resembled Earth,” Andrew Knoll, Fisher Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of Earth […]

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS RELEASE

Scientists on the HiRISE team have discovered never-before-seen impact “megabreccia” and a possibly once-habitable ancient lake on Mars at a place called Holden crater.

The megabreccia is topped by layers of fine sediments that formed in what apparently was a long-lived, calm lake that filled Holden crater on early Mars, HiRISE scientists say.

“Holden crater has some of the best-exposed lake deposits and ancient megabreccia known on Mars,” said HiRISE’s principal investigator, professor Alfred McEwen of the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. ”Both contain minerals that formed in the presence of water and mark potentially habitable environments. This would be an excellent place to send a rover or sample-return mission to make major advances in understanding if Mars supported life.“

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