When could life have existed on Mars?

When could life have existed on Mars? A volcanic approach to studying the red planet

Auckland’s volcanic field is being used in a new study to determine whether ground or surface water, and therefore life, may have existed on Mars.

Auckland’s volcanic field is being used in a new study to determine whether ground or surface water, and therefore life, may have existed on Mars.

The study uses samples from volcanic sites around the world including New Zealand’s Mt Tarawera and Auckland’s Lake Pupuke, and compares them to samples being collected by NASA’s latest Mars explorer vehicle, the Curiosity rover.

The new model developed by the research team can compare and detect whether volcanic eruptions on Earth or Mars interacted with water.

“This is the volcanic approach to searching for water on Mars and although the technique itself is not new, applying it to discovering volcanic eruption styles from other planets is entirely new,” says senior lecturer in geology at the University of Auckland’s School of Environment Dr Michael Rowe.

Curiosity is the first in the rover series to carry a portable x-ray diffractometer, a key tool being used in the research. So far comparison of material from the two planets using x-ray diffraction - which analyses the structure of crystals - suggests Martian sediments are derived from relatively dry volcanic eruptions.

But Curiosity is currently climbing the red planet’s Mt Sharp, which contains a detailed record of the surface of Mars and could yield interesting results.

Thirty different samples from volcanic fields on Earth at ten different sites have been collected for the study. The research team led by Dr Rowe involved scientists from the United States (Kellie Wall), Switzerland (Dr Ben Ellis), Canada (Dr Mariek Schmidt) and New Zealand (Dr Jennifer Eccles).

“The characteristics of eruptions that have occurred on Mars may have been quite different to those on Earth due to the difference in atmospheric pressure and gravity,” Dr Rowe says.

“But by understanding the relative timing of interaction between water and magma rising to the surface on Mars, we will better understand when water was present at or near the Martian surface and therefore when the environment may have been hospitable toward life.”

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