Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The research team found some evidence that the land on Mars may be habitable for a fairly long period of time. To confirm this, scientists have identified clay-bearing sediments from Mars. One of the soil samples studied came from northern Ladon Valles, a river valley system located on Mars.
As a result, the researchers found that the clay exhibited a long-term water footprint, as it formed under neutral pH conditions with minimal water evaporation. Experts suspect that water once flowed here from about 3.8 billion years ago to about 2.5 billion years ago.
Not only that, surprisingly, planetary scientists also predict that there was once a lake on Mars.
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Photo: Illustration of the planet Mars. (DasWortgewand/Pixabay) Illustration of the planet Mars. (DasWortgewand/Pixabay)- – |
“Lightly colored layered sediments showing relatively low layer slopes and containing clay over 200 kilometers in the distance are evidence that a lake most likely exists within the northern Ladon and Ladon Valles basins,” said Catherine Weitz, a senior scientist at Planetary. Science Institute in Arizona, quoted from Science Alert, Tuesday (28/6/2022).
This conclusion was reached after the researchers conducted a thorough study of the images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the orbiter used by researchers to identify soil content on Mars in more detail.
The researchers revealed that the clay initially formed around higher elevations above the basin, before eventually being eroded by waterways and transported downstream to a lake. According to the team, the latest water flow will occur along the southwestern Ladon basin.
Previous research has revealed that there is ice on Mars, although the ice continues to melt. This new study supports the idea that flowing water was once part of the wider Martian landscape.
The presence of water on Mars is very important to determine whether the planet is habitable or not. The distribution of clay and other rocks found by the researchers is also consistent with the discovery of water adhering to the surroundings. What’s more, clay is a source of nutrients, and a stabilizer for the surrounding environment.
“Habitable conditions may have occurred repeatedly in the region, at least periodically, until relatively late in the history of Mars,” the researchers wrote in their published paper.
(hsy / hsy)
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