Page 137 - SB_G5.2_M6-10_Flip

DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info”
CorrectionKey=TX-B;NL-B
myNotes

53 Hmm, thought Steve and his colleagues. Salts are often left behind
when water evaporates. But some team members needed more to
convince them.
54 Opportunity kept exploring.

55 “We treated the rovers very carefully,” said rover driver Scott Maxwell.
“We didn’t want to make them do things like drive over rocks, for fear of
breaking them.” Even so, discoveries poured in. Opportunity found
jarosite—a kind of salt that on Earth forms in the presence of water, in
acidic lakes or hot springs. Still, the scientists didn’t want to jump to

conclusions—maybe things are different on Mars?
56 The team pondered photos of ridges in the rocks. They looked just
like ripples in the sand made by ocean waves on planet Earth.
57 As the clues poured in, Steve and the other scientists became
convinced.
58 “Evidence pointed again and again to the existence at some time of a
flowing, salty body of water on Mars,” said Steve. “It was undeniable!”

59 Just weeks after landing, Opportunity had found evidence that water
once pooled on the surface of this area of Mars. “We landed and boom,
there it was, handed to us on a silver platter. We couldn’t believe our
luck,” Steve said.

60 But important questions remained: Had the water been warm enough
and deep enough, and had it been there long enough, for life to form?

(left) This view of Martian
terrain includes Mount Sharp in
the distance.

(right) Opportunity took this
self-portrait in March 2014.

137