USA: MARS PATHFINDER DISCOVERS NEW TYPE OF ROCK

English/Nat The Mars Pathfinder has spent the last 53 days on the Red Planet in an attempt to uncover more answers about earth's neighbour. And on Wednesday, NASA scientists held a news conference to present the latest findings of the Pathfinder's exploration. These are the latest pictures of Mars, taken by NASA's Pathfinder. The strange machine is the Rover - which has covered close to eighty metres in its 53 days on Mars. Photos taken in the Mars rock garden are of particular interest to NASA scientists. The Rover has already uncovered two distinct types of rocks on the surface of the red planet - a silicon-rich rock, scientists are calling "Shark" and "Barnacle Bill." And a second group - lower in silicon and higher in sulphur - which scientists have named "Yogi." Researchers said on Wednesday that the rocks high in silicon are particularly significant because of their similarity to rocks found on earth. The findings are so new that researchers haven't been able to come up with an explanation on how the second type of rock was formed or why sulphur is present. But Pathfinder scientist Matthew Golombek said they were still excited by the discoveries which were living up to the team's hopes. SOUNDBITE: (English) "For me the really exciting thing is that we are seeing now with these, you know, each measurement that we, we're getting now what looks like two distinct populations - two different kinds of rock. And of course as you know, that was our hope when we selected the site, was to get a pot pourri and two different kinds are better than one and four is better than two - well you get the idea." SUPER CAPTION: Dr. Matthew Golombek, Mars Pathfinder Project Scientist In other findings, scientists have learned that by condensing the water vapour in the Martian atmosphere, a thin layer about one-tenth the thickness of the human hair would form around the red planet - comparable with deep oceans on earth. And the Pathfinder mission has also uncovered incredible pictures of Martian sunsets. A scattering of dust particles causes what looks like a blue halo around the sun, that scientists say is only enhanced by the red sky. Mars also has blue cloud formations -that look similar to those seen from earth - made from icy water particles. A NASA team member said if the clouds would go away just before sunrise earth would actually be visible from Mars. SOUNDBITE: (English) "The earth rises a few hours before the sun and as it climbs up into the sky the sky is getting brighter also, so there's this competition going on and there is a point about an hour and a half before the sun comes up when we should be able to see the earth, and it would be essentially a blue point in the sky - nothing more than that." SUPER CAPTION: Mark Lemmon, NASA Team Member NASA officials say the Mars Pathfinder mission could continue to bring in new information for up to a year. And scientists think the Rover has enough power to analyse about 30 more rocks. Right now, the Pathfinder is stuck on a rock named Half Dome, but will soon will be dispatched for more chemical analysis. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/31bfcd04824115e2a1c92c750c21cdb6 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork