NASA’s Curiosity rover identified rocky materials on Mars with an unusual amount of manganese, a mineral abundant in terrestrial lakes and closely connected to microbial life. This discovery adds an important piece to the enigma that suggests the hypothesis that the Gale Crater of Mars, believed to be an ancient lake bed, was rich in life billions of years ago.
“On Earth, similar deposits are common due to the high presence of oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life and microbes that help catalyze these manganese oxidation reactions,” has explained Patrick Gasda, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. However, the researcher clarified that he does not want to draw hasty conclusions.
The formation and concentration of manganese oxide on Mars remains a mystery, given the absence of direct evidence of life and the unknown mechanism that could have produced oxygen in the ancient Martian atmosphere. “These findings indicate that broader processes have taken place in the Martian atmosphere or surface waters, highlighting the need for further studies of oxidation on Mars,” added Gasda.
Discoveries on Mars continue
The data analyzed by the researchers comes from ChecmCam of Curiosity, a laser that hits rock surfaces creating plasma. By analyzing the light emitted by this plasma, it is possible to deduce the elemental composition of rocks.
The rover explored an area rich in sand and porous rocks that may have facilitated the passage of underground watera movement that could explain the geological processes underlying the detected manganese formation.
On Earth, manganese it is enriched thanks to the presence of oxygen, a process that can be accelerated by microbial life that uses the energy produced for its metabolism. The presence of manganese identified by Curiosity could therefore be evidence of the existence of ancient microbial life on Mars.
