Four billion eld ago , Mars was not the dry ruby-red desert it is today . It had flow water and lakes . perhaps even life . And researchers have uncovered young evidence on where traces of that life history could be hiding .
According to work published in theJournal of Geophysical Research : planet , branding iron - rich aqueous rock ‘n’ roll from ancient lakeshore regions are probably our proficient bet for finding the fossilise remains of ancient life variant . Even if they were very primitive when they died .
Lakebed rock ‘n’ roll have a destiny endure for them . Life as we know it ask water supply , so if there was liveliness on Mars , it would in all likelihood have occur near weewee . Microbes would have found their way to lakebed sediments where clay and clay full-bodied in iron and silica would have finally helped to fossilize them . When the water dry out out and the sediments became rocks , any trace of ancient life would have been preserved within them .
The enquiry will play an important part in selecting the objective for succeeding rover commission such as NASA ’s Mars 2020 and the ExoMars wanderer from the European Space Agency . Bothmissionsare expect to pull in samples that – hopefully – will then be sent back to Earth for analysis .
" There are many interesting rock music and mineral rock outcrop on Mars where we would like to search for dodo , but since we ca n’t send rover to all of them we have tried to prioritize the most bright deposits based on the better uncommitted information , " lead generator Dr Sean McMahon , from the University of Edinburgh , said in astatement .
The usable information was not easy to come by . The international squad of researchers simulated Mars conditions to work out which sort of grunge would be the most probable to conserve biologic signatures for billions of years . And iron - full-bodied aqueous John Rock come out to be the good bet . The experiments had to be done in the lab because naturally occurring Rock of the same age on Earth are not well preserved . Plate tectonics , which Mars does n’t have , messes with the tilt .
Researchers have used the data point that other missions have hoard on Mars to work out what the Red Planet was like in the yesteryear . Between 3 and 4 billion years ago , its abundant water reservoir anddense atmospheremight have allowed life to come forth . We ’ll just have to look to see if there really was life on Mars long ago .
