Mars’ habitable conditions: Scientists make new claims

Scientists made new claims that Mars might have witnessed dry and wet season cycles at some point in its past which increases the possibilities of habitable conditions.

Observations of the Martian surface by NASA’s Curiosity Rover suggest an irregular presence of water, implying that the planet could have had water for some time before it evaporated.

In a new study, scientists from France, the US, and Canada said that this process might have continued until mud cracks formed.

“These exciting observations of mature mud cracks are allowing us to fill in some of the missing history of water on Mars. How did Mars go from a warm, wet planet to the cold, dry place we know today?”

“These mud cracks show us that transitional time when liquid water was less abundant but still active on the Martian surface,” said Nina Lanza, lead investigator of the ChemCam instrument onboard the Curiosity Rover and one of the study’s authors, MSN reported.

“These features point to the existence of wet-dry environments that on Earth are extremely conducive to the development of organic molecules and potentially life. Taken as a whole, these results give us a clearer picture of Mars as a habitable world,” Lanza added.

On Earth, mud cracks assume a T-shape in its initial stage. Over time, with wetting and drying cycles, these take on a Y-shape. On Mars, scientists noted the Y-shape of mud cracks. They think this means that the Red Planet also saw dry and wet seasons like Earth at some point.

In the study published in the journal Nature, scientists noted that these cracks were only a few centimetres deep, implying that these wet and dry cycles could have been seasonal or more abrupt, like flash floods.

In turn, this could mean that Mars once had Earth-like wet climate and that it may have been conducive to life at some point. “[The cycles create] the perfect place for the formation of polymeric molecules required for life, including proteins and RNA, if the right organic molecules were present at this location,” said Patrick Gasda, the paper’s co-author.

“Wet periods bring molecules together while dry periods drive reactions to form polymers. When these processes occur repeatedly at the same location, the chance increases that more complex molecules formed there,” Gasda added.