A group of scientists announced Thursday that it had been discovered on Mars mineral evidence of water environment suitable for life. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter NASA spotted carbonate deposits formed in neutral or alkaline water, scientists said on at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
is a white, bulbous and crisp
"Obviously this is very exciting," said John Mustard of Brown University in Rhode Island. "It is a white, bulbous and crispy," he added.
carbonate is formed when water and carbon dioxide mixed with calcium, iron or magnesium. Rapidly dissolves in acid, so that their discovery disproves the theory of all water on Mars was sometime acid.
"It would have been a very forgiving environment, benign early Martian life," said Bethany Ehlmann, a graduate student Brown University who led the study published in the journal Science .
is the first time scientists have found a place where carbonate was formed. Carbonates on Earth, such as limestone or lime, sometimes preserved organic material, but scientists have found no such evidence on Mars.
carbonate than 3,600 million years was discovered at the base of a crater of 1,490 kilometers wide.
Before carbonates had been found in trace amounts in soil samples provided by the Phoenix, the Martian dust and Martian meteorites on Earth.
But this is the first time that scientists find a place where carbonate was formed.
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