NASA found manganese oxides in Mars and as it once existed here on Earth.
By Rakesh Agrawal
Since the ancient times, the humankind is more than inquisitive to find a match of earth in the universe and had always eyes the red planet, Mars, earth’s closest neighbor, as its match where life could also be flourishing.
Although, scientists and astronomers have long been pooh-pooing on this idea, the recent NASA study suggests that in not the contemporary red planet, the ancient Mars was more like Earth than first thought.
And, it also means, the possibility of life on mars as the Space Reporter mentions.
It says, NASA has discovered rocks on Mars suggest the Red Planet once had an atmosphere similar to Earth, meaning its atmosphere could be similar to that of the earth.
NASA found manganese oxides in Mars and as it once existed here on Earth , meaning, “Atmospheric oxygen or microbes,” said Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Martian rocks suggest that ancient Mars had more oxygen in its atmosphere what it has today as the chemicals: high levels of manganese oxides by using a laser-firing instrument on Nasa‘s Curiosity Mars rover, found in Martian rocks confirm it. (See: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/mars-oxygen-earth-rover)
Nasa is exploring Mars since 2004 and came up with this discovery, published in the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters.
According to the researchers, as Mars’ surface lacks a protective magnetic field shield, water molecules were split into hydrogen and oxygen, thanks to the radiation, so the lighter hydrogen atoms escaped Mars’ low gravity environment and the heavier oxygen atoms remained behind and were sucked by the rocks. Since oxygen rich atmosphere is an obvious potential sign of existing life, meaning a possibility of life on the mars.
“It’s hard to confirm whether this scenario for Martian atmospheric oxygen actually occurred,” Lanza says, “But it’s important to note that this idea represents a departure in our understanding for how planetary atmospheres might become oxygenated.”
That may or may not lead to the discovery of life on the mars, but is surely more than enough material for a science fiction Hollywood blockbuster!