A New Look at the Martian Blueberries

Scientists at Syracuse University – part of NAI’s team at RPI – report new information about the history of water on Mars in the current issue of Planetary and Space Science. Focused on the hematite spherules known as the “blueberries” discovered by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in 2004, the study suggests that ages measured using the relative abundances of uranium, thorium, and helium in the blueberries could yield the time that has passed since water last wetted the sediments. [Source: NAI]