If it doesn't exactly seem like news, perhaps we are looking at the Pathfinder data through the wrong lens. Usually, people are what make news. And, except for the scientists here on Earth going into paroxysms over what is being found, the Mars story has largely been devoid of people.

Geology may not appeal to everyone; yet large numbers of people have nevertheless shown an admirable interest in the proceedings. A Pathfinder Web site on the Internet has already received millions of hits. And each day, new observations whet people's appetite for more.

Most of the observing is coming from a small, 23-pound roving robot called the Sojourner. It moves no more than a few feet in a given day. Chess is action-packed by comparison.

So far, Sojourner has sent back data on a rock scientists have named Barnicle Bill. Bill, it seems, contains a lot of quartz, and resembles a common volcanic rock on Earth. Sojourner has also worked its way around a more troublesome rock called Yogi. Last week, it was revealed that ol' Yogi has a light vertical stripe and a dark fracture.

Not everyone will be thunderstruck by this. But if the data leave many of us Earthlings asking, "So?,'' they are truly astounding to scientists, who are getting five times the material they expected, and will be busy analysing it for a long time to come.

Among other things, the US-sponsored mission will provide clues to how Mars evolved. It will help scientists understand what happens during the planet's autumn dust storms, possibly what happens when an asteroid hits it.

And much more. Already, Pathfinder has confirmed that certain meteorites that hit the Earth came from Mars.

Perhaps most remarkable to non-scientists, though, are the pictures now emerging of the Martian landscape. One researcher likened the place to Tucson, which can be reached for a bargain rate compared with the estimated $266 million NASA is spending on the Pathfinder quest.

But it is not Tucson, of course, or even Timbuktu. It is another planet: desolate, strangely beautiful, awe-inspiring. Mars is a repository of the mysteries of the universe. And something in our own chemistry makes us unable to resist it.