Planetary scientists want to look for biological signatures in what they believe was once a Martian mud lake.
After scientists carefully studied what they believe to be the dried remains of an equatorial mud lake Mars, their study of Hydraotes Chaos suggests that a buried reservoir of water has erupted to the surface. If the researchers are right, then this apartment could become a prime location for future missions looking for his tracks life on mars.
“While Martian lakes and mud volcanoes have been the subject of previous studies, our work represents the first comprehensive analysis specifically focused on a putative mud lake,” Alexis Rodriguez, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, told Space.com.
More generally, scientists suggest that surface water on Mars froze about 3.7 billion years ago when the atmosphere thinned and the surface cooled. But underground, groundwater could still remain liquid in vast chambers. In addition, life forms could reside in these catacombs and leave behind traces of their existence.
Related: Water on Mars has carved deep canyons, leaving a ‘big puzzle’ for the Red Planet’s history
It wasn’t until about 3.4 billion years ago that this aquifer system broke apart in the Hydraotes Chaos, triggering floods of epic proportions that spewed mountains’ worth of sediment to the surface, the study suggests. Future detailed missions could one day examine that sediment and find biological signatures.
Hydraotes Chaos is an example of the geography of the so-called chaos terrain: a jumble of jutting mountains, broken craters, and jagged valleys. Rodriguez and colleagues pored over the images they took of the Hydraotic Chaos NASA‘with Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter while looking for more clues.
Amidst the chaos of the terrain vortex lies a calm circle of relatively flat land. This plain is dotted with cones and domes with hints of mud bubbling up from below – suggesting that the sediment did not come via a rushing flash flood, but instead rose from below.
Related: Scientists have discovered signs of a “modern” glacier on Mars that suggests buried water ice
Based on the simulations, the authors suggest that Hydraotes Chaos overlies a reservoir of buried water rich in biological signatures—potentially in the form of thick ice sheets.
Eventually—potentially from the Red Planet’s internal heat melting the ice—this water bubbled to the surface to form a muddy lake. As the water dissipated, it would leave behind all those irritating biological signatures.
It’s strange that the water could have remained underground even after the mega-floods. In fact, the authors’ results suggest that the sediment on the surface of this mud lake only dates back to about 1.1 billion years ago: long after most of Mars’ groundwater would have been flooded, and certainly long after Mars was habitable.
With that timeline in mind, Rodriguez and colleagues plan to analyze what lies beneath the lake’s surface. That, Rodriguez tells Space.com, would allow scientists to determine when in Mars’ history the planet could have hosted life.
Scientists might even be able to conduct future research directly in the ancient mud. NASA’s Ames Research Center is working on a tool called the Extractor for
Chemical analysis of lipid biomarkers in Regolith (EXCALIBR) which would test alien rocks for biomarkers: lipids in particular. A future NASA mission could take EXCALIBR with it Moon or Mars. “Hydraotes Chaos is being considered as a candidate landing site for (EXCALIBR),” Rodriguez told Space.com.
This research is described in paper published Wednesday (Oct. 18) in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
