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Developing: Mars Curiosity rover finds life-supporting chemicals
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Great article below, why can't they just announce 100 percent that life obviously existed or still does exist on Mars already!!!
[link to www.weatherwatch.co.nz]
Curiosity found evidence of clay formations, or "mudstone," in Yellowstone Bay, scientists said Monday. Martian mud is a big deal because this clay may have held the key ingredients for life billions of years ago. It means a lake must have existed in this area.
"This is a game changer since these are the kind of materials that are very 'Earth-like' and conducive for life," said Douglas Ming, lead author of one of the new studies.
This ancient environment, where the clay minerals formed, would have been favorable to microbes, Ming told CNN.
Some bacteria on Earth called chemolithoautotrophs could have lived in that kind of environment. These bacteria derive their energy from breaking down rocks and sediments, Ming said, generally by oxidizing elements in the rock.
Ming and colleagues also found hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus in the sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay, elements that are all critical for life.
The new findings mean the rover's $2.5 billion mission is "turning the corner," said John Grotzinger, a California Institute of Technology planetary geologist and chief scientist for Curiosity, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory.
Grotzinger and colleagues found the habitable environment existed later in Martian history than previously thought. By studying physical characteristics of rock layers in and near Yellowknife Bay, they determined that Mars was habitable less than 4 billion years ago -- about the same time as the oldest signs we have for life on Earth.
The habitable conditions could have remained for millions to tens of millions of years, with rivers and lakes appearing and disappearing over time.
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