Ice, ice maybe: Evidence of 'Grand Canyon' glacier FOUND ON MARS Boffins have found evidence that suggests an ancient glacier was once at the bottom of a huge chasm known as the Grand Canyon of Mars. It has long been speculated that glacial action formed the massive Valles Marineris canyon, which stretches for about 4,000km (2,500 miles) along the surface of the Red Planet. But this theory …
They have just published their findings. That does not necessarily mean they have just noticed it. The fact that the article continues to state "It has long been speculated ..." might be a clue in that regard. Scientists have been looking for quite a while.
People need to stop considering Science reporting like sports or people reporting. In Science one does not notice something and immediately start broadcasting the fact. In Science, one notices something, checks it, rechecks it to be sure, talks to someone of confidence who checks it independently, THEN, when it has been determined that it is something worth reporting, one publishes the information expecting other people to check it as well.
When one is doing Science, that is.
The press release seems to imply it's the same type of jarosite as occurs on earth, but that it is a new type of deposit.
There's me writing that as if i were intimately familiar with jarosite and had so much of the stuff that I could make a sofa out of it. Whereas actually I've never heard of the stuff before. Still, I think I've carried that bluff off rather well.
By definition, it must be the same as jarosite found on Earth, as a mineral is defined by both its chemical and physical structure. The archetypical example of this is calcium carbonate, which is a single chemical that exists as three different minerals (calcite, aragonite and vaterite), which differ in their crystal structure.
So either, it is the same as terrestrial jarosite, or if it is a 'new type' of jarosite, it isn't jarosite, it's some other sulphate mineral composed of potassium and iron. This raises the question of how it has been identified, as if it is chemically or physically different to jarosite, its infrared spectrum will also be different, and presumably unknown.
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