Composed by: Stephen Ornes Title: Meteorites May Have Sparked Life on Earth Date Written:10/17/13 Is it not strange that the NASA rover that has been on Mars for more than a year, recently picked up some soil that is supposedly "alien artifacts?". The rover, coined Curiosity, used its scanning instruments to send over pictures and very in depth information about the soil. The soils first analyses are now made by the scientists. There were a couple of surprising and exciting bits of information that they received. Among them was a rock that was quite unlike any observed on Mars before. This is very interesting because researchers report finding that soil includes traces of a chemical found in rocket fuel. Rover also found volcanic rocks and a few glassy substances that contain particles of water. “This is the first time we’ve known precisely and definitively what this stuff is made of,” is what David Blake told Science News. Blake analyzed data from an instrument called the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer. This device beams a type of radiation, known as alpha particles, at the soil. Some of the radiation then bounces back into a nearby monitor. The spectrometer then measures how energetic the alpha particles were. Scientists used that data to determine that the soil had volcanic rocks and glassy particles. Another instrument beamed X rays at the soil. X rays are a form of radiation that carry energy as a wave. Different minerals bend or reflect X rays in different ways. So scientists can learn about what’s in the soil by studying how X rays bounce off of and around it. Scientists can also learn about unknown minerals by melting them and then studying what gases they release. Geochemist Laurie Leshin did this with the Martian soil. They cooked it at about 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit and studied the vapors released.The soil held some water and a chemical called perchlorate, which is an ingredient that is poisonous to human kind. Its presence in the soil could pose risks for any research teams that might one day work on Mars. Curiosity’s instruments also tested a pyramid-shaped black rock. The scientists named the rock “Jake_M” in honor of