Michael Lemonick reports that the amazing part is not so much that there is water on Mars, because scientists have known for years that the life-giving liquid flowed freely and abundantly across the Martian surface billions of years ago, and that water in the form of ice still exists in reasonable quantities at the planet poles. But these sandy particles were blown here from all over Mars before settling to the ground. This one sample, therefore, tells us that the water Leshin team found is spread pretty much everywhere on the planet. No matter where astronauts eventually land, they will be able to cook their water supplies right out of the dirt.
It is natural to assume this water is left over from the H2O that was abundant in the Mars early days (including inside Gale Crater itself), but chemicals indicated from the Curiosity Sample Analysis at Mars instrument says otherwise, because a significant amount of the hydrogen in this case is not the ordinary variety, but rather a heavy form of hydrogen known as deuterium and the relative amounts of hydrogen and deuterium in the soil water match those in the tiny bits of water in Mars atmosphere. They think the soil is acting as a sponge, says Leshin, pulling in water as it blows around the planet.
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