Australian Rocks Could Be The Key To Finding Life On Mars
ASA’s Perseverance is getting a helping hand.
For centuries, we humans have stared up at Mars and dreamt of a sister world, complete with its own unique Martian version of life. Sadly, we now know that if there is any life on Mars, it is very rare and hides away from the utterly inhospitable environment of the Martian surface. But it wasn’t always like this. Long ago, Mars was once a pleasant and habitable world, and many scientists believe cellular life should have emerged there. That is why NASA sent its Perseverance rover to Mars in 2021 to look for signs of potential ancient organisms. Interestingly, a recent breakthrough from Australia has just made Perseverance’s job significantly easier. So what is this breakthrough? And how can it help us find signs of primordial Martians?
It might be surprising to know that Mars, which currently has an average temperature of -81 Fahrenheit or -62.7 Celsius and an atmospheric pressure of 0.006 that of Earth’s, meaning liquid water physically can’t exist on its surface, was once a temperate, habitable world. Mars in the Noachian Period, around 3 billion years ago, had a thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere, an ocean covering its northern hemisphere, lakes, rivers, clouds, mild volcanic activity, and average temperatures similar to modern Earth. It was a…
