Lake on Mars could have teemed with microbial life

Minerals identified by Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover suggest lake contained water of low salinity and neutral pH suitable for lifeAn enormous crater near the northern plains of Mars once harboured an ancient lake that could have supported microbial life, Nasa scientists have claimed.The freshwater lake stood for more than 100,000 years at the base of Gale crater, a 90-mile-wide formation created when a meteor hit the planet about 3.7bn years ago.Tests on rock samples by Nasa's Curiosity rover revealed the presence of fine clay minerals that formed in a standing body of water, and coarse-grained sandstones laid down by river flows that drained into the lake."The presence of these minerals tells us the water was likely to be fresh water, which means it's much more conducive for microbial life," said Sanjeev Gupta, a geologist at Imperial College, London, and a member of the Curiosity science team."These rocks are similar to those we would find if we walked along the Dorset or Devon coast line," he added.The Nasa team is not sure how deep or wide the lake was, but suspect it was deep enough not to have dried out periodically, as this would have left traces of crack marks in the rock samples.The $2.5bn (£1.6bn) rover landed on Mars in August 2012 on a mission to explore whether the planet may once have been habitable, though not to look for signs of ancient life.Curiosity's main objective is to trundle up nearby Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mountain in the middle of Gale Crater....
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: theguardian.com Curiosity rover Nasa Biology World news Mars Alien life Science Space Source Type: news