Mars was not always a frigid arid world . 1000000000 of years ago , it had flowing water , lake , and more . The satellite may have been habitable , although it is uncertain if it ever hosted life or not . However , an of import factor in the likely habitability of the Red Planet is the makeup of its ancient waters .
novel research put out inNature Communicationsuggests that the water of Mars had a salinity crushed than Earth ’s oceans but high than freshwater on our planet . It also had a neutral pH level ( the acidity of a substance ) interchangeable to saltwater and contain an teemingness of unlike minerals .
The team used sediment sampling collected in the Yellowknife Bay by NASA ’s Curiosity . The industrious rover has been studying samples of clay in Mars ' Gale Crater , which is believed to have once been an ancient lake . Since Curiosity ’s arrival on Mars , investigator have been pull ahead insights into what the satellite would have been like 1000000000000 of years ago .
Many approach have tried to retrace how Mars ' H2O composition change through the eons , but these require make presumptuousness about the aspects we do n’t recognize . The squad from theTokyo Institute of Technologydecided to try a dissimilar direction by front at the properties of porewater , water trapped in pore within soils and rocks .
What can be gained by the Yellowknife Bay sediment is a mental representation of the last piddle in that orbit , what the researchers call the “ last wet event ” . The porewater at that point was enriched with common salt and minerals , and when it slowly go away it left those behind .
It ’s thought that Gale Crater was a lake with rivers flowing in but no river menstruate out , so the water disappear only through evaporation . Using this idea and the composition of river on Earth , the squad gauge that the porewater composition was only possible if Gale Crater was a lake for up to 1 million years .
The presence of minerals and a long - lasting lake suggest that Mars could not only innkeeper living but it could also have been worthy for its nascence . succeeding investigating by NASA ’s Mars 2020 Rover and the joint ESA - Roscosmos ExoMars wanderer , Rosalind Franklin , will provide newfangled insights on clays from across the Red Planet , giving a more global musical theme of the composition of water across Mars .
