Why is Mars barren and uninhabitable, while life has always thrived here on our relatively similar planet Earth?<\/p>\n
A discovery made by a NASA rover has offered a clue for this mystery, new research said Wednesday, suggesting that while rivers once sporadically flowed on Mars, it was doomed to mostly be a desert planet.<\/p>\n
Mars is thought to currently have all the necessary ingredients for life except for perhaps the most important one: liquid water.<\/p>\n
However the red surface is carved out by ancient rivers and lakes, showing that water once flowed on our nearest neighbour.<\/p>\n
There are currently several rovers searching Mars for signs of life that could have existed back in those more habitable times, millions of years ago.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered a missing piece in this puzzle: rocks that are rich in carbonate minerals.<\/p>\n
These “carbonates” — such as limestone on Earth — act as a sponge for carbon dioxide, pulling it in from the atmosphere and trapping it in rock.<\/p>\n
A new study, published in the journal Nature, modelled exactly how the existence of these rocks could change our understanding of Mars’s past.<\/p>\n
– Brief ‘oases’ –<\/p>\n
Lead study author Edwin Kite, a planetary scientist at the University of Chicago and a member of the Curiosity team, told AFP it appeared there were “blips of habitability in some times and places” on Mars.<\/p>\n
But these “oases” were the exception rather than the rule.<\/p>\n
On Earth, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet. Over long timescales, the carbon becomes trapped in rocks such as carbonates.<\/p>\n
Then volcanic eruptions spew the gas back into the atmosphere, creating a well-balanced climate cycle supportive of consistently running water.<\/p>\n
However Mars has a “feeble” rate of volcanic outgassing compared to Earth, Kite said. This throws off the balance, leaving Mars much colder and less hospitable.<\/p>\n
According to the modelling research, the brief periods of liquid water on Mars\u00a0were followed by 100 million years of barren desert — a long time for anything to survive.<\/p>\n
It is still possible that there are pockets of liquid water deep underground on Mars we have not yet found, Kite said.<\/p>\n
NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which landed on an ancient Martian delta in 2021, has also found signs of carbonates at the edge of dried-up lake, he added.<\/p>\n
Next, the scientists hope to discover more evidence of carbonates.<\/p>\n
Kite said the best proof would be returning rock samples from the Martian surface back to Earth — both the United States and China are racing to do this in the next decade.<\/p>\n
– Are we alone? –<\/p>\n
Ultimately, scientists are searching for an answer to one of the great questions: how common are planets like Earth that can harbour life?<\/p>\n
Astronomers have discovered nearly 6,000 planets beyond our Solar System since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
But only for Mars and Earth can scientists study rocks which allow them to understand the planet’s past, Kite said.<\/p>\n
If we do determine that Mars never hosted even tiny micro-organisms during its watery times, that would indicate it is difficult to kick-start life across the universe.<\/p>\n
But if we discover proof of ancient life, that would “basically be telling us the origin of life is easy on a planetary scale,” Kite said.<\/p>\n
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