Coolest bling in the solar system.
published last month in theby a team of Arizona State University and NASA-affiliated researchers, the Red Planet's Gale Crater is teeming with opals.
Over the last couple of years, researchers have found "fracture halos" of lighter-colored rock in images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which they suggest are likely largely made out of opal, a bluish hydrated mineral. The discovery is particularly intriguing considering that opals are formed when silica are dissolved in water. Subsurface regions of the crater may have once sheltered life from the harsh temperatures and radiation at the surface — long after much of the water had already disappeared from the planet's surface.
Instead of eventually making their way into the extraterrestrial bling, these gems might even end up serving a far more important purpose. Since the water and silica that make up opal can be separated relatively easily, they could potentially serve as a crucial source of water for future astronauts walking the Martian surface.
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