SCIENTISTS ASK IF WATER WAS ON MARS

Like Neil Armstrong's words when he first stepped foot on the moon, the first photographs transmitted by rover Sojourner from the surface of Mars also will go down in history.

Sojourner rolled off its escort Pathfinder after the lander came to rest on the surface of Mars Sunday. Scientists will use Sojourner's photos to scrutinize the surface of Mars closer than ever before possible.

Some of Sojourner's images reflect evidence of water on Mars.

"One of the images shows an absolutely flat surface, which is highly suggestive that at one point it had water," said Nicholas Tibbs, chairman of the geosciences department at Southeast Missouri State University.

Another photo showed horizontal colored bands illustrative of the sedimentary layers that form when water flows over rock, said Dr. Michael Cobb, chairman of the physics department at Southeast.

Water is one explanation for the flat surfaces and sedimentary layers in the pictures. If studies verify the existence of water on Mars, "the probability of finding signs of life on Mars increases a substantial amount," Cobb said.

Scientists hope Sojourner's findings will shed light on a life-on-Mars mystery.

"Scientists could be looking for more basic signs of life like bacteria," said Cobb. "They are trying to do chemical abundance tests on rocks to see how many chemicals like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are present."

Even so, tests performed on Mars' surface might not be entirely accurate, he said. More definitive tests can be done in the future when Martian rock samples are studied on Earth.

Like water, the existence of life on Mars would be an identifying link between the history of the red planet and Earth. The geology of Mars, or Marsology as Tibbs refers to it, could be a tool for better understanding the evolution of our own planet, Tibbs said.

"Much of the evidence of early evolution on our planet has been wiped out since it is such an active planet, whereas evolution on Mars has been preserved like it is on the moon," he said.

Cobb recognizes the accomplishment of Sojourner as technological rather than scientific.

"This is first-time technology: It's the first time we approached a planet like this and landed a remote vehicle," he said. "It lays the framework for man's visit to Mars in the future."

Tibbs, however, is not as impressed. He thinks it shows slow development.

"What I find most amazing is that it has taken us this long to get there," he said. "We easily could have done this 10 years ago with the technology we had. The space projects we have today do not reflect the same kind of national will and effort that existed at the time of the first man on the moon."

Although results of Sojourner's chemical tests will require time to compile, its photographs will have an immediate impact on education in astronomy.

Within a year textbooks will be rewritten to contain the new images, Cobb said. "Before then we will call up pictures on the Internet and show them in classes next semester."