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A Mars Vista, which was captured by the endurance Rover of the NASA. | Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU/MSSS
While most people who are looking for signs of extraterrestrial life nowadays could have an eye on exoplanet K2-18B, a team of researchers keeps a little closer to their homeland.
Texas A & M researcher Michael Tice and a team of international scientists have revealed new information about Mars’s potential to have Supported lifeThanks to data collected by the NASAS Endurance Rover.
The endurance of Mars’ Jezero Crater has been investigating the endurance since 2021 and uses his mobile laboratory to support the work of scientists around the world. Tice and his team in particular have used endurance to analyze Marsfelsen. Your goal is to examine the volcanic and hydrological history of the planet and to look for indicators that Mars Could have been habitable.
Through their research, the team discovered two types of mineral -rich volcanic stones: a dark rock with iron, magnesium, pyroxen and plagioclasis field as well as a light -oriented trachyandesite with plagiocla crystals and potassium.
The researchers simulate the formation of the minerals of the rocks through thermodynamic modeling and found that Mars has a very complex volcanic history – one that could possibly provide the key connections required for life.
“The processes that we see here – fractionated crystallization and crusting assimilation – appear on earth in active volcanic systems,” said Tice in one opinion. “It indicates that this part of Mars may have a longer volcanic activity, which in turn could have delivered a persistent source for various connections used in life.”
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As progressive as the endurance is, his toolkit is still limited compared to what we have here on Earth, so that we can only learn so much from a distance. As such, Tice is looking forward to the planned NASA Mars trial return mission Execute further investigations into the volcanic stone.
“We carefully selected these stones because they contain information about Mars’s earlier environments,” said Tice. “When we get them back Earth And can analyze them with laboratory instruments, we can ask much more detailed questions about their history and potential biological signatures. “
The team’s research was published in the journal Science progress on January 24, 2025.
