Martian fresh water lake may have supported life
NASA says Curiosity rover has found fact of an ancient fresh water lake on Mars that existed 3.5 billion years ago and may have supported small organisms life for ten millions of years, but uncertain about the origin of the organic matter.“This environment would have been almost earthlike,” says Caltech planetary scientist and MSL project scientist John Grotzinger, “in terms of geochemistry and in the presence of water.”The water wasn’t big news, sign that Mars was once a very wet place has been coming in since the early 1970’s, when the Mariner 9 orbiter first marked what looked uncannily like dry riverbeds.
Curiosity examined solid material from the bottom of a long vanished lake and found that it harbours large amounts of organic matter of some kind.It is think possible that over 4 billion years ago Mars may have had sufficient fresh water on its surface to produce clay minerals which may have supported life but that it underwent drying that left any remaining water is acidic and briny to support life.Tons of organic matter falls on Mars every year in the form of meteorites and cosmic dust.The environment around Gale Crater in Yellowknife Bay where Curiosity made the discovery does not seem to have been very pleasant environment for life.By drilling into not protected sedimentary rock at a site nicknamed Yellowknife Bay, the rover has discovered minerals containing hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulfur.Such a lake would supply (give) ideal circumstances for simple microbes life such as chemolithoautotrophs to thrive in.On Earth, chemolithoautotrophs are commonly found in caves and around hydrothermal vents. The microbes break down rocks and minerals for energy.
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