Spirit's Big Discovery

Universe Today describes Spirit's Big Discovery: "A recent discovery by Spirit at an area called Home Plate has researchers puzzling over a possible habitat for past microbial organisms. What Spirit found is a patch of nearly pure silica, a main ingredient in window glass...The silica could have been produced from either a hot-spring type of environment or another type of environment called a fumarole, where acidic steam rises through cracks in the planet’s surface. On Earth, both of these types of environments teem with microbial life." This isn't to say there are living microbes there but their might be microbial fossils.

Meanwhile both the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers are trying to prep for the Martian winter. They were only expected to last a few months but it's been almost 4 years that the rovers are running. The issue is power, which they get from solar panels. Scientists figured when the panels were covered by dust, that would be it, but it turns out dust devils not only dump dust on the panels but also clear them off. Between them they've sent back about 200,000 images from the Martian surface and driven almost 12 miles.

By the way, now is a good time to look at Mars. It reaches it's closest point with earth on Dec 18th and it's directly opposite the sun on the 24th. It's brighter this month than it will be for 8.5 years and it will be as high in the sky as it gets.