NASA’s Curiosity Rover Uncovers Signs of an Earth-Like Environment on Ancient Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover continues to search for signs that Mars’ Gale Crater conditions could support microbial life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSA 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 Earth, manganese becomes enriched because of oxygen in the atmosphere, and this process is often sped up by the presence of microbes. Microbes on Earth can use the many oxidation states of manganese as energy for metabolism; if life was present on ancient Mars, the increased amounts of manganese in these rocks along the lake shore would have been a helpful energy source for life.

Reference: “Manganese-Rich Sandstones as an Indicator of Ancient Oxic Lake Water Conditions in Gale Crater, Mars” by P. J. Gasda, N. L. Lanza, P.-Y. Meslin, S. N. Lamm, A. Cousin, R. Anderson, O. Forni, E. Swanner, J. L’Haridon, J. Frydenvang, N. Thomas, S. Gwizd, N. Stein, W. W. Fischer, J. Hurowitz, D. Sumner, F. Rivera-Hernández, L. Crossey, A. Ollila, A. Essunfeld, H. E. Newsom, B. Clark, R. C. Wiens, O. Gasnault, S. M. Clegg, S. Maurice, D. Delapp and A.

Source: Tech Daily Report (techdailyreport.net)

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