“From early 2004, Spirit Rover checked out the surface area of Gusev crater on Mars bring a suite of clinical instruments to carry out geological and mineralogical analysis on soils, rocks, meteorites, and dust gathered by magnets,” stated Professor Paulo de Souza, a scientist at Edith Cowan University.

“Among these instruments, a miniaturized Mössbauer spectrometer called MIMOS II was thoroughly utilized.”

“During the next 2062 sols, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers passed through the surface area of the Red Planet with the goal of figuring out if Mars was as soon as damp.”

In a brand-new research study, Professor de Souza reviewed information gathered by the MIMOS II spectrometer, which can determine iron-bearing minerals by determining how iron atoms in a sample soak up gamma rays.

Due to the fact that the Spirit rover needed to share restricted time, power and memory amongst a complete suite of science instruments, specific Mössbauer measurements on Mars were typically short, producing spectra with reasonably bad stats.

This made it hard to find small iron stages that comprised just a little portion of a soil sample’s mineral material.

To work around that restriction, Professor de Souza integrated readings from 32 undisturbed soil targets that Spirit analyzed at Gusev crater throughout 2,062 Martian days, covering temperature levels from 180 to 300 K.

Due to the fact that temperature level swings within about a 10-K variety do not meaningfully misshape the spectra of basaltic product, the scientist combined information throughout those windows initially, then integrated all the temperature level varies into one composite spectrum.

The outcome was approximately 6 days worth of comparable measurement time loaded into a single dataset.

The combined spectrum indicated the existence of typical Martian soil minerals such as olivine and pyroxene, together with an inadequately crystalline, paramagnetic iron-bearing stage.

It likewise exposed clearer signatures of magnetite and crystalline hematite than earlier single-experiment analyses were able to select out.

“One of the most crucial discoveries was discovering crystalline hematite in common Martian soil,” Professor de Souza stated.

“This mineral’s prevalent existence recommends not just that water existed, however that substantial locations of Mars might have as soon as been covered by water.”

The research study was released in the journal Interactions

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P. de Souza. 2026. A combined Mössbauer spectrum for undisturbed soils from Gusev Crater, Mars. Interactions 247, 278; doi: 10.1007/ s10751-026-02625-4