Could Rocks On Mars Provide Indications Of Life?

Scientists are continually searching for signs of life on the planet Mars. The Curiosity Rover is helping them in their search. Recently, they have been studying the rocks on Mars to look for hints of life on the Red Planet.

Kenneth Farley, the Caltech Mars 2020 project scientist, said that they believe, aside from Earth within the solar system, Mars is probably the most habitable place. NASA is also dispatching the Mars 2020 rover to the planet to aid in accomplishing the goals of the scientists. The rover has a laser that could study rocks in the near distance and a robotic arm to examine rocks up close.

Rocks on mars, photographed by oppportunity rover pic.twitter.com/C9qzYmqRrw

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Farley explained that the laser is mounted up on the rover's mast and it fires high-energy laser light at the rock and actually causes that rock to vaporize. Once the vapor cooled down, it emits light that comes back to the rover and tells the scientists what minerals are present and what elements are visible. This will lead to deeper understanding of the geologic environment around the rover, according to NASA.

The rover is also capable of identifying and mapping the distribution of any organic molecules that might be visible. Farley further explained that this is significant because the organic molecules are produced by, among other things, life. This is then the way that the scientists can identify signs of ancient life on Mars.

According to Christian Monitor, the Mars curiosity rover detected large amounts of the element manganese in a piece of rock in 2013. Today, the analysts said that the discovery could be proof of a once-oxygenated Martian atmosphere.

The researchers also discovered that Mars was once abundant in surface water. Nina Lanza, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory said that if they could peer onto Mars millions of years ago, they see a very wet world. She further said that that they didn't think Mars ever had enough oxygen to concentrate manganese--- and that's why they thought that the data from Caribou must have been an error.

Lanza explained that amounts of manganese basically exist in basalt, which is a building block of all planets. She further explained that to get a rock with as much manganese as Caribou has, the manganese must be concentrated. The rock has to be melted in liquid water that also contains oxygen dissolved in it.

She added that if the conditions are right, the manganese can then precipitate as manganese oxide minerals. On the planet Earth, the dissolved oxygen in groundwater comes from the atmosphere.

Dr. Lanza also said that Mars has evolved very differently that they thought it did. She concluded that they need to start looking for different types of minerals and other evidence about Mars's past.