Mars: A Colder, More Hostile Past for Life Than Previously Thought

New research suggests that Mars may have been like that. A colder, icier world in its past, Instead of the warm, humid environment suggested by many studies, the researchers found similarities between the Red Planet’s soil and that of Newfoundland, Canada, a region with a subarctic climate.

The study published in Earth and Environment Communications, They examined soil on Earth with materials similar to those found in Gale Crater on Mars. The minerals in these soils can reveal the evolution of the landscape over time.

The soil and rocks in Gale Crater provide a record of the climate of Mars 3 to 4 billion years ago, when the planet had abundant water and life appeared on Earth. “Gale Crater is an ancient lake: water was clearly present,” said Anthony Feldman, a soil scientist and geomorphologist at the Desert Research Institute. But what were the environmental conditions when there was water there?.

Since 2011, Rover NASA’s Curiosity rover investigated Gale Crater and found that between 15% and 73% of the soil and rock samples analyzed contained “amorphous x-ray material”This type of material lacks the repeating atomic structure typical of metals, making it difficult to analyze using conventional techniques such as X-ray diffraction.

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Feldman compared the amorphous X-ray material to gelatin: “It’s a soup of different elements and chemicals sliding over each other.” Chemical analysis of the Curiosity rover She explained that this material is rich in iron and silica. But it is poor in aluminum. However, it is still unknown what the presence of this material means for the historical environment of Mars.

The research team examined soils in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, the Klamath Mountains in northern California and western Nevada. The serpentine soils in these sites are rich in iron and silica but low in aluminum, It is similar to the one in Gale Crater. The subarctic conditions in Newfoundland produced Mars-like materials, in contrast to the warmer climates of California and Nevada.

“This suggests that water is needed to form these materials, but that cold, average annual temperatures, close to freezing, are necessary to maintain them in the soil,” Feldman explained. This study suggests that Mars may have had a subarctic climate, similar to that of Iceland.

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