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Mars from Hubble

For years, the conventional wisdom was that Mars existed as little more than than a cold, arid dust ball in infinite. The idea that it one time supported life was considered unlikely. Only then we started sending probes the the Carmine Planet, and more recently rovers like Curiosity. Since its arrival in 2012, Curiosity has covered more basis than all previous rovers, and now mission scientists are comfortable saying that Mars would accept been capable of harboring life for hundreds of millions of years in the by.

Curiosity landed in a region known equally Yellowknife in Gale Crater, and has been making its way up to higher elevations effectually Mount Sharp, which is in the center of Gale Crater. This gives information technology a take a chance to investigate the strata as information technology ascends, essentially scanning the Martian past.

The new annunciation of Mars equally a potential long-term dwelling house to aboriginal life comes from Curiosity science squad fellow member John Grotzinger, who spoke on the topic at a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Nosotros've known from samples all the way back to Yellowknife that Gale Crater most likely played host to a vast lake and stream organization, simply it was not present continuously. That doesn't necessarily mean everything living there disappeared with the h2o, though.

According to Grotzinger, analysis of Curiosity data from diverse levels in Gale Crater paint a picture of fresh, neutral pH water that got more than acidic and salty over fourth dimension. The lakes also completely stale up and refilled repeatedly over the form of millions of years. Despite this, simple microorganisms could have persisted in the groundwater, ready to accept advantage when standing water once more flooded the surface.

curiosity

Curiosity has besides identified a cracking diversity of minerals on Mars, which points to a complex chemical history — just the sort of affair life requires. The rover has detected many of the same minerals we have on Globe, including clays, magnetite, and boron. There's even silica, which scientists are particularly happy about. On Earth, silica has been skillful at preserving microscopic fossils. If life did be on Mars in the past, nosotros might observe strong evidence for it in silica deposits.

This is all assuming conflicting life on Mars operates past the same rules equally life on Earth. That'south certainly non a given. Fifty-fifty life on Earth can seem almost alien at times. Single-celled extremophiles can survive (and even thrive) in conditions besides hot, acidic, or salty for any other organism. Maybe something like that lived (or lives?) on Mars. We might find more clues when NASA'south 2020 rover projection heads to the Crimson Planet.