After a rough couple of weeks computer-wise, the Mars Curiosity Rover still managed to analyze its sample of Martian rock on time and send the results back to Earth. And they’re exactly what scientists have hoped for — it appears that ancient Mars was capable of sustaining life, though whether it actually did or not is another question entirely. The sample was from Gale Crater, which is where Curiosity was sent since it appears to have once been the site of an ancient river, or even lake, bed. Curiosity analyzed it to see if it contained any of these main components that helped to create life on Earth — sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon.
The Gale crater sample turned out to be mostly made up of fine-grained mudstone containing clay and sulfate minerals, and this composition contains enough chemical energy and other conditions suitable for microbial life. The sample is about 20% clay, which NASA scientists believe was created when the crater was a river or lake. Even more importantly, they found that this area wasn’t overly oxidizing, acidic, or salty. The sample also contains traces of oxidized, less-oxidized, and un-oxidized chemicals. All these factors combined mean the likelihood of micorbial life once existing on Mars. or at least being capable of existing, is pretty good.
What’s next for our favourite Mars roving science lab? He’ll continue his journey across the Gale Crater to the Yellowknife Bay area, and then it’s off to the final destination, Mt. Sharp, where the Curiosity team is expecting to find more soil and rock samples containing sulfate minerals and clay.
If we ever get this terraforming business right, who knows, maybe we’ll be all be living on Mars sooner than we think. There’s certainly nothing to lose if you start designing your Mars dream house now, right? Mine’s definitely gonna have a pool.
[via io9]
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Megan Patterson is the Science and Technology Editor at Paper Droids and currently a Toronto Standard intern. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise.
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