Curiosity's Mars Crater Was Once a Vast Lake 42
astroengine writes The mountain that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is exploring appears to have once been a lake, scientists said Monday. Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mound of layered debris rising from the floor of Gale Crater, is believed to have formed billions of years ago, images posted on NASA's website ahead of conference call with reporters show. Sediments to create the mountain likely originated from the crater rim highlands and were transported toward the center of the crater in alluvial fans, deltas, and wind-blown drifts, scientists said. "During wet periods, water pooled in lakes where sediments settled out in the center of crater," NASA said. "Even during dry periods in the crater center, groundwater would have existed beneath the surface. Then, during the next wet period it would resurface to form the next lake. This alternation of lakes, rivers and deserts could have represented a long-lasting habitable environment."
gotta find mars' g-spot (Score:1)
then its going to be wet again.
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Great (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:Great (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not as if you're going to be able to crack open one of those rocks and find the Martian equivalent of a trilobite. For most of Earth's history, the dominant forms of life were microbes, and only in the last 600 million years or so when oxygen levels increase do large multicellular forms appear. Mars, assuming it ever had life, probably never got that far. So fossil evidence will consist of fossilized microbes- which will require cracking open rocks, thin-sectioning them, and inspecting them under a microscope. The other possibility is doing chemical analyses of the rocks and looking for geochemical evidence of life- isotopic ratios or organic compounds that could only be explained by the presence of life. Either way, it will require a fairly sophisticated laboratory. Either we have to conduct a sample-return mission, or we need to develop miniature laboratories that can be sent to Mars.
Although it now seems as if there is a third option. Recently, a meteorite was discovered which appears to represent a sedimentary rock from Mars. It's spendy stuff- $10,000 a gram- but that's vastly cheaper than a sample-return mission. A multimillion-dollar program to prospect for Martian meteorites on Earth is another way to look for Martian sedimentary rocks.
Re:Great (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Great (Score:4, Informative)
So why is it so hard to find fossilized evidence of previous life then?
Big planet and we aren't by the exposed stuff. While we do find stuff laying out in the plain site on earth, that isn't usually how they find fossils. Some digging is required and a lot of time nature will do something to expose fossil. Mars doesn't have weather like ours, so chances of having a landslide or something is less.
If we had a million peeps walking around on mars, then yes, maybe we'd find some fossils if they exist, but 1 rover on that planet? We'd be really lucky, IMO.
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We need a road cut. Get an Interstate on Mars - then we'll find fossils.
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Native Martians would also appear out of the wood work protesting the road going through sacred burial grounds. Consider it a twofer.
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You're joking, right?
The original mission was [wikipedia.org]:
Having been sent there to see if water could have been there and if we can find evidence of that, and after being a huge success, lasting longer than planned, and giving us evidence that, yes, at one point Mars had liquid water ... you're actuall
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Why hasn't it built a habitat capable of sustaining human life yet? Come on Curiosity, get it together! This is the big leagues!
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Hi there Hi there, thanks for the incredibly large low-rez picture of a gorge cut by a river.
Until they find .... (Score:3)
Global warming (Score:1)
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So basically, once global warming takes its course, Earth is going to look like Mars.
If you want a global-warming nightmare scenario, Venus is a better candidate.
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Partly solves a mystery (Score:2)
The fact that basic life on Earth formed "surprisingly early" in Earth's history suggests it came from Mars. Earth was a mess early on at a time when Mars was an almost Earth-like place (by today's standards).
Mars would probably have been much more suitable for life formation in the first billion or so years after the solar system formed. The volume of land suitable to life formation on Mars was probably much greater on Mars than Earth then. And meteor strikes were common such that life had a ready interpla
Yeah right (Score:2)
It all drained away in those canals, I suppose.
Pull the other one, it plays a tune.