NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered the first evidence that Mars once had a climate which alternated between wet and dry seasons similar to Earth, a study said on Wednesday, suggesting the red planet may have once had the right conditions to support life.
Though the surface of Mars is now an arid desert, billions of years ago rivers and vast lakes are thought to have stretched across its surface.
Since 2012, the Curiosity rover has been exploring the huge Gale crater, which is believed to be home of a former lake and has a massive mountain of sediment nearly six kilometres (four miles) high in its centre.
"We quickly realised that we were working in lakes and rivers deposits, but did not know what type of climate they were linked to," William Rapin, a researcher at France's CNRS scientific research centre and the study's lead author, told AFP.
While climbing the slope of the sediment mountain in 2021, Curiosity found salt deposits forming a hexagonal pattern in soil dated to nearly four billion years ago.
The rover's instruments identified the patterns as cracks in dried mud, according to the study published in the journal Nature.
"When a lake dries up the mud cracks, and when it fills back up, the cracks heal," Rapin explained.
Repeat this process enough times, and the cracks arrange themselves in hexagons.
Therefore, this is "the first tangible proof that Mars had a cyclical climate," Rapin said.
Regularly occurring wet and dry seasons, as on Earth, could have provided the conditions needed for life to form, the researchers said.
- 'Pretty lucky' -
Curiosity has already detected the presence of organic compounds considered the building blocks of life on Mars, which could be another piece of the puzzle.
But these building blocks need the right conditions to become the precursors of life.
"In a world that's too dry, these molecules never have the opportunity to form -- nor do they in a world that's too wet," Rapin said.
But banish thoughts of big-headed green men -- if Mars did support life, it was likely primitive single-celled microorganisms.
"Over 11 years, we've found ample evidence that ancient Mars could have supported microbial life" due to the Curiosity rover, said Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Now, the mission has found evidence of conditions that may have promoted the origin of life, too," he said in a statement.
The discovery of such ancient terrain could never have been possible on Earth, where tectonic plates constantly reshuffle the surface, sifting away such lingering traces of the past.
That means that studying Mars -- which lacks tectonic plates -- could help scientists solve the mystery of how life began on our home planet.
"It's pretty lucky of us to have a planet like Mars nearby that still holds a memory of the natural processes which may have led to life," Rapin said.
Artificial Intelligence Analysis
Defense Industry Analyst:
The Defense Industry Analyst would rate this article 8 out of 10 in relevance due to its discussion of the potential for life on Mars from billions of years ago. This article is particularly relevant for the defense industry given that its findings could lead to further exploration of the planet and the potential for military applications. The primary audience for this type of analyst would be military planners and strategists who are looking to gain insight into the potential of Mars as a potential site for operations.
Stock Market Analyst:
The Stock Market Analyst would rate this article 6 out of 10 in relevance due to its discussion of the potential for life on Mars from billions of years ago. This article is particularly relevant to the stock market as it could lead to investments in space exploration and technology companies. The primary audience for this type of analyst would be investors and traders who are looking to gain insight into the potential of investing in space exploration and technology stocks.
General Industry Analyst:
The General Industry Analyst would rate this article 7 out of 10 in relevance due to its discussion of the potential for life on Mars from billions of years ago. This article is particularly relevant to industry analysts as its findings could lead to further exploration of the planet which could have implications for the energy, transportation, and agriculture sectors. The primary audience for this type of analyst would be industry professionals and executives who are looking to gain insight into the potential implications of space exploration for their respective industries.
Analyst Summary
:This article discusses the discovery of the first evidence of a climate on Mars which alternated between wet and dry seasons similar to Earth, suggesting that the red planet may have once had the right conditions to support life. The evidence was discovered by the Curiosity rover which identified salt deposits in soil dated to nearly four billion years ago. The salt deposits were arranged in a hexagonal pattern which is indicative of mud cracking and healing, suggesting that the climate was cyclical. These findings are particularly relevant for the defense, stock market, and general industry sectors, as they could lead to further exploration of the planet, investments in space exploration and technology, and implications for the energy, transportation, and agriculture sectors respectively. This discovery builds on the evidence from the last 25 years that Mars is a potentially habitable planet, with the presence of organic compounds indicating the potential for life on the planet.Investigative
Question:
- 1. What new technologies and methods were used to identify the salt deposits on Mars?
- 2. How can the cyclical climate of Mars be used to further explore the potential for life on the planet?
- 3.
How can the findings of this article be applied to the defense, stock market, and general industry sectors?4. What further evidence is needed to definitively prove the existence of life on Mars?
5. What additional exploration techniques are needed to gain a better understanding of the climate of Mars?
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