The fortunate Mars rover Curiosity has captured a strange image of a glowing crack, which may contain a gemstone mine that serves as evidence of life.
In the photo released by NASA, something resembling a “glow” appears against the arid surface of Mars.
The resilient and lucky NASA rover – Curiosity – has approached and discovered that the crack is an entrance to an ancient lakebed filled with opal (cat’s eye stone). Besides being a literal treasure, these gemstones may provide something even more valuable: Evidence of extraterrestrial life that may have existed very recently!
NASA’s “golden” photo revealing signs of a fault line that could be the entrance to another world – (Photo: NASA).
According to Live Science, geologists explain that the presence of opal indicates that water and rock have interacted beneath the Martian surface much more recently than previously thought, improving the prospects that life once existed there, or may still be lurking somewhere.
Water is the missing piece needed for Mars to be a habitable planet, as scientists point out that organisms could be protected from the planet’s harsh radiation and survive in the shelters beneath the surface.
There is ample evidence of water on Mars. Curiosity and other NASA robots are currently roaming areas that are clearly ancient river plains. However, these have dried up billions of years ago, leading to the assumption that Martian life – if it ever existed – went extinct billions of years ago.
However, the opal found in an area known as Gale Crater, a 154 km wide ancient lakebed that Curiosity has been exploring since 2012, has brought new insight.
A team of scientists led by physicist Travis Gabriel from the United States Geological Survey examined Curiosity’s vast data set and revealed the surprising findings. The analysis of the chemical properties of the rocks was conducted indirectly through the examination of a collection of other fault lines, including the Lubango drilling site.
At Lubango, scientists operated DAN, a device that measures neutrons ejected from the Martian surface attached to Curiosity. This device helps detect water because neutrons slow down in the presence of hydrogen, a primary component of water.
The results confirmed the presence of opal, a water-rich mineral. “With the network of faults spread across Gale Crater, it is reasonable to hope that the subsurface conditions suitable for life also extend across many other areas within the lakebed, and possibly to other locations on Mars. These environments formed long ago when the ancient lakes in Gale Crater dried out,” Dr. Gabriel stated.
The study has just been published in the scientific journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
