A new examination of soil samples from the Gale crater has raised the probability that life once flourished on the now-barren Mars. The Perseverance rover begins its trip to hunt for indications of ancient microbial life in the Jazero crater. The Gale crater is home to Nasa’s Curiosity rover which is 3,700 kilometers from Perseverance’s position.
The presence of an ancient lake that existed in the Gale crater for up to 10 million years has been confirmed by observations. The Mars Science Laboratory indicates that regions of Mars may have once been habitable for thousands of years, according to researchers. As per the report in Journal Nature Astronomy the lake was filled with sediments that eventually turned to compact sandstone.
The lake is thought to have existed some 3.5 billion years ago when the planet had a thicker atmosphere which allowed the liquid to dwell on the surface. However, it’s uncertain whether the lake possessed the right conditions for life to prosper.
The research was based on X-Ray data from the Curiosity rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin). The degree of disorder of clay minerals in the Murray formation at Gale crater was studied. The samples, taken from the crater by the Curiosity rover in 2016, revealed the presence of glauconitic (iron potassium silicate) mineral remnants, implying that temperatures on Mars were formerly stable. It could range between -3 and 15 degrees Celsius.
On Earth, glauconite is formed in low-sedimentation-rate and open-marine environments. Scientists, on the other hand, felt that while glauconitic clay was a sign of habitability, it did not prove the existence of life. This isn’t the first time the rover has made a major finding.
