Mars has been barren for so long, yet many scientists think that in the past Mars had water. NASA's Curiosity mission might have found new evidence for this. Mars has rocks that show signs of habitability in the past.
The Curiosity rover continues its exploration of Mars. The exploration is finding new evidence that Mars once had water. Evidence of lakes has been found on Mars' rocks. This might have been favorable for life to evolve on Mars back then.
Some of the minerals found in the rocks on Mars hematite, clay and boron. Much of the minerals are found at a higher level. Lower level layers have less of the minerals. Scientists are still trying to determine what this could mean for Mars. Scientists speculate that the higher level deposits have been formed by water transporting them to the top.
The sediments slowly accumulated over time at the top surface. Minerals have also been found in cracks where water has seeped into mineral veins, according to Science Daily. The veins formed when water went into cracks in the soil, depositing the minerals into them.
John Grotzinger, a member of Curiosity's science team and Caltech there is much variability on different elevations on Mars. While evidence for water might be there, there is still officially no evidence of life on Mars, as Phys Org reports. Curiosity is still trying to find whether there are microorganism life on Mars.
What Curiosity did find is that conditions in Mars changed over time. One of the evidence for this is the presence of hematite. Hematite suggests that warmer conditions came to Mars later, as said by Thomas Bristow of NASA Ames Research Center. Hematite could also mean the interaction of the atmosphere with the sediments, he added.
Boron is another element that is being found recently by Curiosity. Boron comes in when an area with much water has experienced evaporation. Deposits of boron found in the rocks and soil indicate that there could have been water on Mars once. The presence of these elements suggests that Mars once had a dynamic environment, as observed by Grotzinger.
Scientists are still not sure if there is life on Mars, but water might have been around then. Even so, Mars has rocks that show signs of habitability, which could mean that life could be possible there. An earlier research shows when Jupiter was formed.
