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(MENAFN – Youm7) New NASA study reveals evidence of ancient life may have been removed from parts of Mars, as space agency’s Curiosity probe makes surprising discovery while investigating rocks mud-rich sedimentary around its landing site at Gil Crater, the site of a precedent lake set when an asteroid hit the Red Planet nearly 3.6 billion years ago.
Clay is a good sign towards proof of life as it is usually created when the minerals in the rock fade and rot after coming into contact with water, a major component of life and an excellent material for storing. microbial fossils.
But when Curiosity took two samples of ancient mudstone, a sedimentary rock containing clay, from dry lake bed plates dating back to the same time and in the same location 3.5 billion years ago, the researchers found that one piece contained only half the expected amount of clay minerals. .
The team believe this geological disappearance is caused by brine, the very salty water that has seeped into the mineral-rich layers of mud, destabilizing and flushing them away.
“We thought that once these layers of clay minerals form at the bottom of the lake in Gil Crater, they stay that way, preserving when they formed,” said the study’s lead author, Tom Bristow, researcher at NASA’s Ames Research. Center in Mountain View, Calif., Said in a statement that it has formed there for billions of years.
“But later, brines broke down these clay minerals in some places, essentially re-registering the rocks,” Bristow added.
The process of chemical transformation in the sediment is called diagenesis, and it could have created new life under Mars even after some traces of old life on its surface had been erased. The chemical influx of salt water allowed more life to appear in its place.
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