Scientists: Salt in Mars soil not bad for life by Paulina Neshybova

Mission scientist found out on Tuesday that the ingredients that they investigated in the soil on Mars could not be harmful for life. On Mars there is a NASA´s spacecraft called Phoenix which detected a chemical known as perchlorate which is an oxidizing salt. This chemical can be also found on Earth in a specific area of Atacama desert. There exist some organisms for which it may be used as a source of energy.
However, the scientist does not know yet if it is good fro organisms. According to Richard Quinn, who is a scientist in NASA center confirms that there are some microbes for which thus ixidizing inveronment is natural. But they still do not know if it the same for Mars ,too. Scinetist also found that the soil which is nare the north pole on Mars is suitable for some plants as aspharagus or green beans. However, the perchloride found here is probably neither bad or good for organisms, asi t makes the soil more exotic than they previsouly thought.
The original plan of spacecraft Phoenix was to find any evidence that the soil on Mars could support life. They detected only some ice, but no carbon building blocks yet. What they found then was the perchlorate, but they still do not know if it occurs in the soil there naturally. And now their problem is whether this chemical could contamine Poenix during the launch preparations. Such contamination has been already found also in the U.S. in no less than 25 states and their waterways. It is dangerous because in some circumstances it can be harmful for human life.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080805/ap_on_sc/phoenix_mars;_ylt=AmHNwqtH9s2oHTKlHek1cpSs0NUE

by Paulina Neshybova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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