NASA spacecraft captures evidence that Mars is habitable

Searching through a huge trove of data from NASA's Reconnaissance Mars Orbiter, American planetary scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient world of life.

According to Science Alert, planetary scientists from the Institute of Planetary Sciences (Arizona - USA) have identified in the images of the Reconnaissance spacecraft clay-containing sediments throughout northern Ladon Valles, south of the Ladon Basin. and the southwestern highlands around the Ladon basin - all part of a large area known as the Margaritifer Terra.

Margaritifer Terra is located just south of the Martian equator, with ancient and chaotic terrain.

A lake in Margaritifer Terra in the past

Clay indicates the long-term presence of water, as it forms under neutral pH conditions with minimal water evaporation. The team thinks that the water flowed here between about 3.8 billion years ago and 2.5 billion years ago, a large period in the history of Mars.

Lead researcher Dr Catherine Weitz said: "The colorful light-toned multi-layered sediments with relatively low settlement and clay content within 200 km are evidence of a lake. most likely occurred in the Ladon basin and north of Ladon Valles".

The presence of the lake and clay would have supported an environment favorable to life at the time it existed.

NASA's Reconnaissance Mars Orbiter

While it is not definitive evidence of life, it does suggest conditions that may have supported life. The clay probably originally formed around higher ground above the Ladon Basin, before being eroded by water channels and transported downstream into a lake in the Ladon Basin and north of the Ladon Valles.

According to the team, the most recent water flow was along the basin southwest of Ladon. The deposits here match another part of Mars, the Eberswalde Plain, just south of the area covered by this study.

"Our results indicate that water-deposited clay sediments in Eberswalde are not unusual in recent times as we see many examples of similar young valleys where clay was deposited in region," explains Dr. Weitz.

The presence of water on Mars temporarily or otherwise is crucial to determining whether life could be supported at some point. The distribution of clay and other rocks the researchers found is consistent with the ability of water to stick around this terrain.

Furthermore, clays are a source of nutrients and stabilizers for the environment around them. Putting water, nutrients, and stable conditions together, the chances of life already existing and thriving increases dramatically.

The study has just been published in the scientific journal Icarus.

The finding is consistent with long-standing suspicions about the Margaritifer Terra region, as the turbulent terrain is said by NASA to be "sculpted" by raging currents, including floods. But where there is water, life is possible.

But that wave, the "first Martian" Curiosity, NASA's famous rover, also found the building blocks of life in another ancient river valley, along with plenty of evidence to support the stellar hypothesis Fire ever lived more and more real.