Mars appears something 'could only be born of life'

At the bottom of an ancient lake on Mars, a NASA robot discovered a land identical to Earth, containing clear hints of life .

A research team led by Dr. Patrick Gasda from Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) has revealed the mystery of an unusual discovery by Curiosity, NASA's hunter for life on Mars.

That was the discovery in May 2017 of a higher than normal amount of manganese oxide in an ancient lake bottom in the Gale Crater area, a large impact crater on Mars.

Until now, scientists have been puzzled because the known conditions on the red planet do not allow such an environment to exist.

Manganese-rich sedimentary rocks were discovered at the bottom of a lake on Mars - (Photo: NASA).

In a research paper just published in the scientific journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the authors discuss how manganese may be enriched in these lake-bottom rocks and point to possible life. single key.

The manganese-rich sedimentary rock discovered by the Curiosity rover is a mixture of sand, silt and mud. This type of sandstone is more porous and groundwater can penetrate more easily than mudrocks.

Did the researchers consider how manganese could be enriched in this sandstone? For example, by seeping groundwater through sand on lake shores or delta estuaries. At the same time, what oxidizing agent can cause manganese precipitation in rocks?

On Earth, manganese is enriched by atmospheric oxygen, and this process is often accelerated by the presence of bacteria.

Geobacteria can use multiple oxidation states of manganese as energy for metabolism.

'On Mars, we have no evidence of life, and the mechanism that produced oxygen in the ancient Martian atmosphere is unclear. So, how manganese oxide is formed and concentrated here is really puzzling' - Dr. Gasda said.

It seems that life is the only reasonable explanation for that puzzling thing.

Therefore, the presence of manganese and manganese oxide here may be indirect evidence of ancient microorganisms.

If similar life existed on ancient Mars, the increased amount of manganese in the rocks along the shore of this lake would be a useful source of energy for them to survive and reproduce.

In other words, the Gale Crater that NASA targeted for the Curiosity mission most likely contained a lake rich in living organisms several billion years ago, when Mars had not yet become barren.

That is not unreasonable, because Mars is also in the habitable zone of the Solar System like Earth.

The evidence that NASA has found so far shows that about 3 billion years ago, this planet used to have as much water as Earth, but unfortunately it was lost into space.