Scientists think that life might have existed on Mars during the Noachian period

Jul 30, 2010 06:57 GMT  ·  By
This image of a cluster of rocks labeled 'Rock Garden' is where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became embedded in April 2009
   This image of a cluster of rocks labeled 'Rock Garden' is where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became embedded in April 2009

A new research has been made on the hydrothermal formation of Clay-Carbonate rocks in the Nili Fossae region of Mars, as presented in a new article in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. These discoveries might establish a link to evidence that on Mars were living organisms 4 billion years ago, during the Noachian period.

The study suggests that carbonate bearing rocks from the Nili Fossae region of Mars are composed of hydrothermally altered ultramafic (perhaps komatiitic) rocks and that the carbonates at Nili Fossae are not pure Magnesium-carbonate. Furthermore, researchers found talc (and not saponite as it was previously believed) close to these carbonate locations and a talc-carbonate modification of high-Magnesium precursor rocks has already occurred, AlphaGalileo relates.

“We suggest that the associated hydrothermal activity would have provided sufficient energy for biological activity on early Mars at Nili Fossae. Furthermore, in the article we discuss the potential of the Archean volcanics of the East Pilbara region of Western Australia as an analog for the Nochian Nili Fossae on Mars. They indicate that biomarkers or evidence of living organisms, if produced at Nili, could have been preserved, as they have been in the North Pole Dome region of the Pilbara craton,” explains Adrian Brown, a corresponding author of the paper “Hydrothermal formation of Clay-Carbonate alteration assemblages in the Nili Fossae region of Mars”.

Tilman Spohn, Editor of the Earth and Planetary Sciences proudly states: “Earth and Planetary Science Letters is delighted to be publishing this exciting new scientific finding, which marks a significant finding in the Nili Fossae region of Mars, highlighting similarities between traces of life on early Earth and early Mars, and suggests a landing site for an exobiology mission to Mars.”

The Noachian Period is the first of the three periods of Mars' existence, followed by the Hesperian and the Amazonian periods. The names of the periods come from the surface regions created during that time. The Noachian Period is named after Noachis Terra, a vast highland in Mars' southern hemisphere. During this period a huge number of rocky objects of different sizes struck Mars and the impacts created craters on the planet’s surface.