A European spacecraft has discovered extraterrestrial salt flats strikingly similar to those created by humans on Earth.
According to Sci-News, a new analysis based on data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has found a place where extraterrestrial life could potentially hide in the Terra Sirenum region on Mars.
These are chloride-rich sediment patches ranging from 300 to 3,000 meters in diameter.
In total, 965 such patches have been recorded by the Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) on the TGO spacecraft.
The “salt flats” appear in purple in images captured by the CaSSIS instrument on the TGO spacecraft – (Photo: ESA).
The research team, led by Dr. Valentin Bickel from the University of Bern (Switzerland), stated that it is highly likely that these salt-rich sediment patches formed from shallow ponds or saltwater that evaporated under the sun.
They have remained permanently on the surface of Mars after the planet lost all its original water, transforming into a barren desert billions of years ago.
In other words, these sediment patches could be identical to the salt flats created by humans to produce salt from seawater on Earth.
According to the research team, this location could likely be a target for future spacecraft seeking signs of life.
Of course, while they resemble human salt flats, the life we are searching for is not extraterrestrial beings, but rather smaller life forms that could utilize this environment to survive.
“Highly saline water bodies could serve as a refuge for life, acting as beacons indicating habitable locations on Mars, as the high salt concentration allows water to remain in a liquid state at temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius.” – the authors explained.
As we know, Mars is much colder than Earth.
Additionally, these salt flats also mark areas that once had liquid water in the past.
Even if life on Mars has gone extinct, we still have the opportunity to search for traces of it through the salt flat-rich regions like Terra Sirenum.
Furthermore, while the salt-rich terrain may not stand out in typical black-and-white images, it appears in a distinctive purple hue in the color infrared images collected by CaSSIS.
Thus, the CaSSIS instrument on the TGO spacecraft promises to help scientists discover many locations that may hide clues about extraterrestrial life.
