""Elsewhere on Mars, rocks like these are probably some of the most important outcrops we've seen from orbit because they are just so hard to form," said coauthor and Purdue University professor of planetary science and NASA Perseverance team member Briony Horgan in a statement. "You need so much water that we think these could be evidence of an ancient warmer and wetter climate where there was rain falling for millions of years.""
"The team compared the rocks with samples from San Diego, California, and South Africa, and found intriguing similarities. "So when you see kaolinite on a place like Mars, where it's barren, cold and with certainly no liquid water at the surface, it tells us that there was once a lot more water than there is today," lead author and Purdue University postdoctoral research associate Adrian Broz added."
Perseverance rover discovered light-colored dotted rocks ranging from pebbles to boulders that likely contain aluminum-rich kaolinite clay. Kaolinite forms on Earth after millions of years of wet, rain-filled weather that leaches other minerals, and its presence implies prolonged surface water and tropical conditions. Comparative analysis matched these rocks with samples from San Diego and South Africa. Kaolinite on a currently barren, cold Mars indicates a past with much more surface water, possibly rain falling for millions of years, and suggests an ancient warmer, wetter climate that could have supported habitability before atmospheric loss.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]