Scientists have discovered water-modified minerals and organic compounds on the Red Planet, indicating that water may have flowed through the Martian terrain billions of years ago, reports RT.
Scientists, including MIT planetary scientist Eva Schiller, used the SHERLOC instrument on the Perseverance rover on Mars to measure the chemical composition of rock samples from Crater Lake, the site of an ancient lake and river bed.
The team published the findings in three articles in the journals Science and Science Advances on Wednesday.
Since the Perseverance spacecraft landed on Mars’ crater lake in February 2021, scientists have analyzed data collected by the spacecraft looking for signs of water and organic chemicals that point to ancient life on Mars.
The area around Jezero crater was of particular interest to scientists because they suspected it might be a river delta.
“On Earth, these types of environments thrive,” said astrobiologist Amy Williams, one of the long-term planners of the Perseverance mission at the University of Florida in the US.
‘The goal of surveying deltas and crater lakes is to search for these previously habitable environments, looking for rocks that may contain evidence of ancient life,’ explained Dr. Williams.
In the new study, the researchers found carbonates mixed with olivine grains in the older igneous rocks of the crater floor.
The scientists pointed out that these findings indicate the possibility of water leaking through these rocks. “Reactions with liquid water formed carbonates in olivine-rich igneous rocks,” they wrote in the paper.
Scientists have also found traces of phosphate – the building block of life – in these rocks.
And in the basalt rocks of the “Maz” formation (meaning Mars in the Navajo language, one of the Native American tribes), which is part of the Jezero crater, scientists have also found evidence of salts called perchlorates, which are negatively charged. A molecule composed of one chlorine atom and four oxygen atoms.
Scientists think these perchlorates may have formed when Mars had liquid water. The scientists explained that “perchlorates decompose easily, and therefore it is likely that the perchlorates formed when these rocks were last exposed to running water.”
While studies show that perchlorates aren’t very hospitable to life, the water that led to their formation may be beneficial.
The team noted: “This kind of elevated oxygen level in general is not good for preserving signs of life. So I think that’s always a possibility, but it’s probably not the first place you look for conditions for life.”
The studies were also able to shed light on the presence of ring-shaped organic compounds, but failed to identify the chemicals involved.
NASA has also previously pointed out that the presence of organic matter does not necessarily mean that life existed before on Mars, as both biological and non-biological mechanisms could be behind the formation of these molecules.
When rock samples collected by Perseverance return to Earth on a future mission, they can be analyzed in greater detail with more powerful analytical tools to bring more life to the history of the Red Planet.
