Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hecht, M.H
• Kounaves, S.P
• Quinn, R.C
• West, S.J
• Young, S.M.M
• Ming, D.W
• Catling, D.C
• Clark, B.C
• Boynton, W.V
• Hoffman, J
• DeFlores, L.P
• Gospodinova, K
• Kapit, J
• Smith, P.H

Titel

Detection of Perchlorate and the Soluble Chemistry of Martian Soil at the Phoenix Lander Site

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2009-07, Vol.325 (5936), p.64-67

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

American Association for the Advancement of Science EJournals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Wet Chemistry Laboratory on the Phoenix Mars Lander performed aqueous chemical analyses of martian soil from the polygon-patterned northern plains of the Vastitas Borealis. The solutions contained approximately 10 mM of dissolved salts with 0.4 to 0.6% perchlorate (ClO₄) by mass leached from each sample. The remaining anions included small concentrations of chloride, bicarbonate, and possibly sulfate. Cations were dominated by Mg²⁺ and Na⁺, with small contributions from K⁺ and Ca²⁺. A moderately alkaline pH of 7.7 ± 0.5 was measured, consistent with a carbonate-buffered solution. Samples analyzed from the surface and the excavated boundary of the approximately 5-centimeter-deep ice table showed no significant difference in soluble chemistry.