14 DAY TRIAL // According to investigators based at the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), two landscape features recently discovered on the surface of the Red Planet may very well represent former hotspots for life.
The team behind the new study explains that a NASA orbiter was able to identify two small depressions on the Martian surface, which appear to contain large amounts of minerals that can only form in the presence of liquid water.
But liquid water also implies heat, and perhaps even an atmosphere. This means that the features were active, in a manner of speaking, billions of years ago, when the Red Planet had not yet suffered the catastrophic climate change that turned it into the wasteland it is today.
At that time, eons ago, these wet depressions may have been the home of numerous species of microorganisms, if not even more complex animals. PSI researchers are extremely excited to have discovered the depressions, which have unique properties.
The paper detailing the findings, published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Geology, indicates that the features were identified using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRSE) and Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer of Mars (CRISM) instruments.
Both tools are outfitted on the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been in orbit around Mars since 2006. HiRISE is the most advanced camera ever used for space exploration.
“We discovered locations at Noctis Labyrinthus that show many kinds of minerals that formed by water activity,” explains the lead author of the new investigation, PSI senior scientist Catherine Weitz.
“The clays we found, called iron/magnesium (Fe/Mg)-smectites, are much younger at Noctis Labyrinthus relative to those found in the ancient rocks on Mars, which indicates a different water environment in these depressions relative to what was happening elsewhere on Mars,” she says.
What these minerals imply is that the depressions contained non-acidic water, which further raises the prospect of the liquid being able to support life. During the research, the PSI group had access to photos showing up to 300 meters (950 feet) of vertically exposed layered rock in both depressions.
“These clays formed from persistent water in neutral to basic conditions around 2 to 3 billion years ago, indicating these two troughs are unique and could have been a more habitable region on Mars at a time when drier conditions dominated the surface,” Janice Bishop explains.
She was a coauthor of the new investigation. The expert holds an appointment as a CRISM team member, and is based at the SETI Institute and NASA AMES Research Center, both in California, Daily Galaxy reports.