Was Mars Actually Habitable in its History? Science Might Point to Yes!

Amaze Lab

Was Mars ever habitable by living creatures? That’s a question NASA’s Curiosity rover has been trying to determine for years. Recently, according to new evidence gathered in the Gale Crater where the rover has been exploring, the red planet may have been able to harbor life billions of years ago.

Transcript

00:00was mars ever habitable by living creatures that's a question nasa's curiosity rover has

00:08been trying to determine for years and recently according to new evidence gathered in the gale

00:12crater where the rover has been exploring the red planet may have been able to harbor life

00:16billions of years ago the rover found manganese oxide which is a mineral that is often found

00:22in lakes on our planet on earth it occurs during oxidation meaning oxygen must be present when the

00:27crystals form if the same process once happened on mars it could mean that the planet once had

00:32enough oxygen for life to survive geochemist at los alamos national laboratory patrick gazda had

00:37this to say about it on earth these types of deposits happen all the time because of the

00:42high oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life and from microbes that

00:46help catalyze these manganese oxidation reactions however he also says that because we don't yet

00:51have evidence of life on mars or how oxygen would have been produced there this discovery raises as

00:56many questions as it does answers with planetary scientist nina lanza saying the gale lake environment

01:02as revealed by these ancient rocks gives us a window into a habitable environment that looks

01:06surprisingly similar to places on earth today

Category

Transcript

Recommended