NASA’s Curiosity Rover Uncovers Evidence of Ancient Climate Change on Mars: Could Liquid Water Have Supported Life?

Researchers use the rover Curiosity and NASA has published new information about climate change in marte, focusing on how these changes have made its surface inhospitable to terrestrial life forms. Analysis of samples collected in Gale Crater reveals the presence of carbon-rich minerals, indicating a past when liquid water was more widespread on the red planet’s surface.

Curiosity rover NASA and Evidence of Previous Climate

Currently, the Martian climate is too harsh to support life forms known on Earth. However, studies show that Marte it might already be holding liquid water. Isotopic analysis of carbonates – minerals filled with variations of carbon – found in Gale Crater indicates an ancient Martian atmosphere that has undergone significant changes.

NASA and discoveries about the formation of carbonates

David Burtt of the Goddard Space Flight Center NASAstates that the isotopic values ​​of these carbonates suggest considerable movement, indicating a climate that could only temporarily support liquid water. This research, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a record of the ancient climate of the planet, giving the opportunity to understand the conditions of the atmosphere and the surface.

Ideas about climate change on Mars

Scientists have been led to consider two possibilities for the appearance of carbonates in Gale Crater. The first one suggests that they arose from cycles of humidity and drought, and the second theory suggests that they were created in salty waters and under frozen conditions. Both hypotheses suggest different scenarios and may indicate changing times in which Marte it was almost hospitable to life forms.

• Wet and dry cycles: They would mark the change of environments, from more to less living.
• Cryogenic conditions: They indicate an environment that is mostly cold, with water turned into ice or very salty.

Implications for Understanding the Martian Past

Jennifer Stern, co-author of the study, explains that cycles of wetness and dryness may indicate changes in the habitable environments of the planet, while cryogenic temperatures in mid-latitudes indicate an environment that is not take a seat Water, under such conditions, would be trapped in ice or would be very salty, creating a habitat that would be unfavorable for life as we know it.

These traces of rover Curiosity and NASA the ongoing search for evidence of climate conditions that would have allowed liquid water to exist on Mars, confirmed a fundamental step towards understanding whether the planet was ever capable of supporting give some form of past life.

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