Latest news with #RhiannaMoore
Indian Express
05-07-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
Life on Mars? Thick clay layers on red planet might hold the answer
The possibility of life on Mars is something scientists and astronomers have been trying to figure out for decades. With rapid advancements in science in the last century, scientists have stumbled across various clues as to how and where life could be hidden on the red planet. While meteorites, liquid water and water ice at the planet's poles have hinted that the planet may once have been ideal for life, new research suggests that the thick, mineral-rich layers of clay were ideal for life to survive for a long time. These layers, which are said to have formed about 3.7 billion years ago, had warmer and wetter conditions than the rest of the planet. Researchers say they analysed 150 clay deposits using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and analysed their shape and locations to see how they resembled ancient lakes and rivers on the planet. In a statement to Rhianna Moore, a researcher and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas' Jackson School of Geosciences, said, 'These areas have a lot of water but not a lot of topographic uplift, so they're very stable. If you have a stable terrain, you're not messing up your potentially habitable environments.' For those wondering, deposits like these on Earth can be found in certain landscapes and climatic conditions. Researchers say they noticed that most of the clay layers were formed in low areas near ancient lakes, but they weren't close to the valleys where water once flowed. In a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists say these clay minerals were found in areas where chemical weathering was favoured over physical erosion.' Since tectonic activity is pretty much non-existent on Mars, CO2 released by volcanoes on Mars likely stayed in the planet's atmosphere for a long time, making it warmer and wetter. This may have also contributed to the formation of the clay layers. Speculation also has it that the clay absorbed water and captured chemical byproducts like cations, which prevented them from reacting with the rocks surrounding them. However, it is still unclear how the planet's topography and climate affected the formation of these clay layers.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Could signs of Mars life be hidden in its thick layers of clay?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The thick, mineral-rich layers of clay found on Mars suggest that the Red Planet harbored potentially life-hosting environments for long stretches in the ancient past, a new study suggests. Clays need liquid water to form. These layers are hundreds of feet thick and are thought to have formed roughly 3.7 billion years ago, under warmer and wetter conditions than currently prevail on Mars. "These areas have a lot of water but not a lot of topographic uplift, so they're very stable," study co-author Rhianna Moore, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas' Jackson School of Geosciences, said in a statement. "If you have stable terrain, you're not messing up your potentially habitable environments," Moore added. "Favorable conditions might be able to be sustained for longer periods of time." On our home planet, such deposits form under specific landscape and climatic conditions. "On Earth, the places where we tend to see the thickest clay mineral sequences are in humid environments, and those with minimal physical erosion that can strip away newly created weathering products," said co-author Tim Goudge, an assistant professor at the Jackson School's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. However, it remains unclear how Mars' local and global topography, along with its past climate activity, influenced surface weathering and the formation of clay layers. Using data and images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — the second-longest-operating spacecraft around Mars, after the agency's 2001 Mars Odyssey — Moore, Goudge, and their colleagues studied 150 clay deposits, looking at their shapes and locations, and how close they are to other features like ancient lakes or rivers. They found that the clays are mostly located in low areas near ancient lakes, but not close to valleys where water once flowed strongly. This mix of gentle chemical changes and less intense physical erosion helped the clays stay preserved over time. "[Clay mineral-bearing stratigraphies] tend to occur in areas where chemical weathering was favoured over physical erosion, farther from valley network activity and nearer standing bodies of water," the team wrote in the new study, which was published in the journal Nature Astronomy on June 16. The findings suggest that intense chemical weathering on Mars may have disrupted the usual balance between weathering and climate. RELATED STORIES — NASA's Curiosity Mars rover discovers evidence of ripples from an ancient Red Planet lake (images) — Ocean's worth of water may be buried within Mars — We finally know where to look for life on Mars On Earth, where tectonic activity constantly exposes fresh rock to the atmosphere, carbonate minerals like limestone form when rock reacts with water and carbon dioxide (CO2). This process helps remove CO2 from the air, storing it in solid form and helping regulate the climate over long periods. On Mars, tectonic activity is non-existent, leading to a lack of carbonate minerals and minimal removal of CO2 from the planet's thin atmosphere. As a result, CO2 released by Martian volcanoes long ago likely stayed in the atmosphere longer, making the planet warmer and wetter in the past — conditions the team believes may have encouraged the clay's formation. The researchers also speculate that the clay could have absorbed water and trapped chemical byproducts like cations, preventing them from spreading and reacting with the surrounding rock to form carbonates that remain trapped and unable to leech into the surrounding environment. "[The clay is] probably one of many factors that's contributing to this weird lack of predicted carbonates on Mars," said Moore.
