[ad_1]
Soil minerals collected from Gale Crater by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars have revealed that the Red Planet may have been habitable for up to a million years. Researchers at the University of Vigo in Spain analyzed samples from the crater and structurally linked to the gluconite clay, which was previously found on Earth.
According to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, the presence of the mineral on the red planet indicates that the Martian world had stable conditions with temperatures ranging from 26 degrees to 123 degrees Fahrenheit, and the pH level of the water was neutral.
“The presence of sludge indicates the presence of liquid water which persists for a long time under equilibrium conditions,” wrote Elizabeth Lusa Adams of the University of Vigo, Spain, and co-author of the study.
In addition, Adams added, the geochemical parameters required for its formation, i.e. neutral pH and low temperature, would also create favorable and habitable conditions for potential organisms.
A NASA spacecraft has arrived at the crater since August 2012, and has looked for signs of water and organic compounds in the soil. The 96-mile-wide crater has long been thought to contain an ancient lake of up to 10 million years ago about 3.5 billion years ago, but scientists They have not yet determined whether the body of water is suitable for life.
Losa-Adams and his team studied Curiosity samples in the lower slope of the central hill called Aeolis Mons, known as Mount Sharp.
They used X-ray data obtained by Curiosity’s on-board instruments to characterize the degree of turbulence of clay minerals.
Source link
