Scientists find new confirmation about water, life on Mars

Scientists now believe conditions favorable to life on Mars existed at one, and there is now  new evidence and information that reveals liquid water was present in different places on the planet as the building block for life.

ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have discovered hydrated silicate minerals in the northern lowlands of Mars, a clear indication that water once flowed there.

	Lyot crater and the locations of the hydrated minerals

The spacecraft have previously discovered thousands of small outcrops in the southern hemisphere where rock minerals have been altered by water. Many of these exist in the form of hydrated clay minerals known as phyllosilicates, and indicate that the planet’s southern hemisphere was once much warmer and wetter than it is today.



Now these same phylloscilicates have been found in the northern plains, indicating potential for life in more than one area on Mars.

This information has been found by the Mars Express OMEGA sensor, according to scientists.

Colour coded Mars showing Lyot Crater

“We can now say that the planet was altered on a global scale by liquid water more than 4 billion years ago,” says John Carter, University of Paris, the report’s lead author.



With the small sample of widely scattered sites, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the type of environment all that time ago. However, the nature and locations of the minerals provide some clues.

Puddles and lakes of water on early Mars are assumed.

“They are rich in iron and magnesium, but less in aluminium. Together with the close proximity of olivine, which is easily modified by water, this indicates that the exposure to water lasted only tens to hundreds of millions of years,” says Jean-Pierre Bibring, the OMEGA Principal Investigator from the University of Paris.

Although Mars’ potential habitability did not last long, remarkably its record is still preserved in phyllosilicate-rich spots.



A number of scientists have suggested that a shallow ocean subsequently covered the lava-coated northern plains. However, no evidence in support of this is provided by the new results.



“Our studies do not find any signs of the lava plains in the north being altered by water,” says Dr Bibring.



On a positive note, the new results may suggest sites for future landers because evidence for water during the early history of Mars suggests that conditions may have been favourable for the evolution of primitive life.



“These results reveal the history of Mars derived from the planet’s mineralogy,” says Olivier Witasse, ESA Project Scientist for Mars Express. “It is another example of the fruitful cooperation between European and American scientists.”