NASA: snow found in Martian skies

NASA’s Phoe­nix Mars Lan­der has de­tected snow fall­ing from Mar­tian clouds, sci­en­tists say, and space­craft soil tests have given ev­i­dence of past in­ter­ac­tion be­tween min­er­als and liq­uid wa­ter, pro­cesses seen on Earth.

A la­ser in­stru­ment de­signed to gath­er knowl­edge of how the at­mos­phere and sur­face in­ter­act on Mars has de­tected snow from clouds about 4 kilo­me­ters (2.5 miles) above the space­craft’s land­ing site, the re­search­ers re­ported. Da­ta show the snow va­por­iz­ing be­fore reach­ing the ground.

Phoe­nix ex­pe­ri­ments al­so yielded clues point­ing to cal­ci­um car­bon­ate, the main com­po­nent of chalk, and par­t­i­cles that could be clay, agen­cy sci­en­tists said. Most car­bon­ates and clays on Earth form only in the pres­ence of liq­uid wa­ter.


Source:http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080929_snow