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USA Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers, metabolism, Mars, manganese, rocks, lake, energy, life

New findings reinforce the theory that Mars was habitable


Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States (USA) suggest that Mars may have been a habitable planet in antiquity, after analyzing the latest samples collected by the Curiosity rover, according to a statement from the body.

The ChemCam instrument on board the Curiosity has detected elevated levels of manganese in the bottom rocks of the lake in the Murray Formation, located in the former Gale crater on Mars.

Thus, the study has revealed that coarse-grained rocks have an enrichment of up to 45 times in manganese and up to 1.5 times in iron compared to the average chemical composition of fine-grained rocks of the formation. The authors point out that these deposits formed in a river, a delta or near the shore of an ancient lake.

It is difficult for manganese oxide to form on the surface of Mars, so we did not expect to find it in such high concentrations in a coastal deposit, explained Patrick Gasda, scientist who led the research recently published in the journal Journal of Geophysical Research.

The expert added that on Earth, such deposits occur all the time due to the high level of oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life and the microbes that help catalyze those manganese oxidation reactions.

The sedimentary rocks explored by the róver are a mixture of sand, silt and mud. Sandy rocks are more porous and groundwater can pass through them more easily compared to the types of mud that form most of the lake bed rocks in the crater Gale. Due to its characteristics, it is believed that this state of the rocks may have required oxidation conditions similar to those found on Earth.

The microbes of our planet use oxidation of manganese as a source of energy for their metabolism and if there was life on ancient Mars, the greater amounts of manganese in these rocks on the lake shore would have been an extremely useful source of energy for life. (Text and photo: RT)


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