Life on Mars: NASA Finds New Evidence

when you look at Mars today you probably wouldn't think it looks like a nice place to live it's plagued by dust storms razor thin air and freezing temperatures but scientists think that Mars once may have been much more hospitable to life now they have found more evidence for that in rock samples collected and examined by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover opportunity researchers have discovered evidence of an ancient wet environment that was milder and less acidic than previously believed scientists directed the Opportunity rover to a place on the rim of the Endeavour crater after data from NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter suggested there may be clay minerals on the crater rim which form in the presence of water and that turned out to be true when we drove opportunity on those outcomes we found evidence for clay minerals and when we backed out the chemistry of those materials they would have formed in wildly acidic at best waters a little bit salty but not much and those are the kinds of waters that would have been habitable back from a long time ago on Mars nASA has found evidence of a habitable environment on Mars before the Curiosity rover which is studying the Mars surface 5,300 miles away from opportunity found clay minerals that formed in relatively mild water conditions last year but those materials were found in rocks that are younger than the more than four billion year old rocks that opportunity examined scientists say all this suggests that Mars a planet that's 4.6 five billion years old went through three distinct periods the first was likely warm and wet as opportunity's latest discovery shows and then as Mark started to dry out there wasn't that much water available and it became much more acidic and foreign these sulfate salts those are kind of intermediate aged rocks and then you know everywhere we look on Mars the younger rocks are very dry the latest discoveries by the opportunity Rover had new insights into the history of water on Mars and reveal more favorable conditions for microbial life than any previous evidence collected by the rover this doesn't prove the planet was actually inhabited however the more scientists find out about Mars the more it looks like it had what it takes to host life mr. Arvidsson says it's a very important question you know are we alone in the solar system and elsewhere or has life evolved on other objects and in the Red Planet you know is a key planet to look at because we now know that early on it had the right niche environmentally and it had water sustained on beneath the surface and the waters are relatively mild NASA is planning to launch another mission to Mars in 2020 as a next step in the exploration of Mars scientists hope the rover will be able to drill rock samples and return them to earth for more detailed studies the end result will bring an even more precise picture of where the life once existed on Mars

Channel: Wall Street Journal

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Keywords: NASA, MARS, PLANETS, SOLAR SYSTEM, MARS ROVER, MARS OPPORTUNITY ROVER, MARS CURIOSITY ROVER, SPACE EXPLORATION, LIFE ON MARS, HUMANS ON MARS, SPACECRAFT, MARS SPIRIT, RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER, ENDEAVOR CRATER, CLAY MINERALS, MINERALS, SIGNS FOR LIFE, CONDITIONS FOR LIFE ON MARS, MARS MISSION, NASA MARS MISSION, Twitter, Travel, Sciences, Technologies

Id: IWPO-VViwx4

Length: 3min 39sec (219 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 28 2014