Space Agency Curiosity rover NASA made an astonishing discovery while exploring the clay-rich sedimentary rocks around the landing site in Gale Crater, a former lake formed after an asteroid hit the Red Planet some 3.6 billion years ago.
About it writes livescience.
Clay is a good indicator of the presence of life because it is usually created when rocky minerals weather and rot after contact with water – a key ingredient for life. It is also an excellent storage material for microbial fossils.
But when Curiosity took two samples of ancient mudstone, a sedimentary rock containing clay, from sections of the dried lake bottom dated at the same time and location, the researchers found that one section contained only half of the expected amount of clay minerals. Instead, the site contained more iron oxides, compounds that give Mars a rusty hue.
The team believes that brine is the culprit behind this geological extinction: super-saline water that seeped into the mineral-rich clay layers, washing them away.
Also “Apostrophe” reported that the first four-legged robot will be sent to Mars to search for signs of life.
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