Scientists Find Strong Hint That Mars Was Once Habitable
Was Mars ever habitable? Could humans ever move there? Are there any little green humanoid life forms on the Red Planet? While people had been asking such questions for centuries, scientists now believe that they have the answer to at least one of these dilemmas.
The NewScientist publication announces that after analyzing clays located in one of the Red Planet’s craters, scientists concluded that parts of the planet might have been habitable for many years. The researchers involved in the new study are claiming that those clays could only have formed within a stable life-friendly environment, and data from NASA’s Curiosity rover was collected.
Thousands or even millions of years of habitability
The data collected about the clays belong from 2016 after NASA’s rover used its drill to see what’s going on in the Gale Crater. The researchers concluded that a particular clay mineral is present on a sample from Mars, and it’s related to the glauconitic clays.
Elisabeth Losa-Adams from the University of Vigo, Spain, and also the study’s lead author, said as cited by NewScientist:
Glauconitic clays can be used as ‘a proxy’ for stable conditions,
The conditions under which these minerals form are friendly for the presence of life.
However, it’s important to remember that signs of habitability don’t automatically mean that it’s mandatory for any living being to have indeed existed on Mars in the planet’s history. It may not be any trace of fishes in an entire lake from Earth, for instance, although the lake itself is habitable, meaning that it can sustain life. A similar thing can happen to the habitability of Mars that the scientists are talking about in their new study.
Finding any life forms dwelling on the Martian surface or beneath remains a highly important objective for astronomy, and we can only hope for some clear results in the near future.
Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.
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