A breakthrough discovery has found that Mars may have once been warm, wet, and able to support life. NASA‘s Perseverance rover has been exploring the Red Planet since 2021, but recently spotted some unusually pale rocks in an ancient riverbed and on the rim of a crater.
After firing its lasers at them, the rover researchers were able to analyse the rocks to find their mineral composition. Professor Roger Wiens of Indiana’s Purdue University said his team found over 4,000 small white pebbles and large rocks from Mars’ surface. He told Newsweek: “We have known for a long time that Mars had lakes and rivers, but many people suspect that temperatures were still quite cold, given Mars’ distance from the sun.”
The rocks were found to contain kaolinite, which forms in Earth’s warm and rainy environments, or close to hot springs – all of which are conducive to life.
Wiens added: “The surprising aspect of these rocks is that kaolinite requires relatively warm temperatures, a wet environment, and long time periods to form.
“It ups the ante in terms of the ancient climate of Mars, suggesting that it had to be quite warm, at least for some extended time periods.”
Kaolinite is a soft, earthy, usually white, mineral produced by the chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals like feldspar.
Though its presence on Mars presents a step forward in answering the question of if it ever supported life, Wiens noted that “big questions” still remain.
He said: “The big questions about Mars are about water. How much water was there? How long was there water? Given how cold and dry Mars is now, where did all that water go?
“As a mineral, kaolinite has a lot of water bound up in its structure. It’s possible that a lot of the water is still there, on Mars, bound up in the minerals.”
