A research team using the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA 's Curiosity rover discovered higher-than-usual amounts of manganese in lakebed rocks within Gale Crater on Mars , which indicates that the sediments were formed in a river, delta, or near the shoreline of an ancient lake.
"On Mars, we don't have evidence for life, and the mechanism to produce oxygen in Mars's ancient atmosphere is unclear, so how the manganese oxide was formed and concentrated here is really puzzling. These findings point to larger processes occurring in the Martian atmosphere or surface water and shows that more work needs to be done to understand oxidation on Mars," Gasda added.
The sedimentary rocks explored by the rover are a mix of sands, silts, and muds. The sandy rocks are more porous, and groundwater can more easily pass through sands compared to the muds that make up most of the lakebed rocks in the Gale Crater.
"The Gale lake environment, as revealed by these ancient rocks, gives us a window into a habitable environment that looks surprisingly similar to places on Earth today," said Nina Lanza, principal investigator for the ChemCam instrument."Manganese minerals are common in the shallow, oxic waters found on lake shores on Earth, and it's remarkable to find such recognizable features on ancient Mars."P. J. Gasda, N. L. Lanza, P.‐Y. Meslin, S. N. Lamm, A. Cousin, R.
NASA Space Missions Space Exploration Solar System Moon Astronomy Asteroids Comets And Meteors
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