Curiosity Rover discovers Earth-like Lake on Martian soil

The findings from the three-and-a-half year mission of NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered a long-lasting lake on Mars that provided steady environmental conditions that were different from one portion of the lake to another.

Though the past research in Mars’ Gale Crater exposed the presence of the lake for more than three billion years ago, the latest studies reveals the chemical conditions that exist in the lake and makes use of Curiosity’s payload to comprehend if the lake was stratified or not.

According to the researchers, the stable environmental conditions in different areas of the lake contributed to various kinds of microbes. The stratified bodies of water demonstrated sharp physical or chemical distinction between the shallow and deep water. What the Gale Crater revealed was that the shallow part was richer in oxidants than the deeper side.

According to Phys.org, the co-author of the study Roger Wiens stated, “We're learning that in parts of the lake and at certain times, the water carried more oxygen. This matters because it affects what minerals are deposited in the sediments, and also because oxygen is important for life. But we have to remember that at the time of Gale Lake, life on our planet had not yet adapted to using oxygen—photosynthesis had not yet been invented.”

He further continued, “Instead, the oxidation state of certain elements like manganese or iron may have been more important for life, if it ever existed on Mars. These oxidation states would be controlled by the dissolved oxygen content of the water.”

The study published in the journal Science quoted the led author Joel Hurowitz saying, “These were very different, co-existing environments in the same lake. This type of oxidant stratification is a common feature of lakes on Earth, and now we've found it on Mars. The diversity of environments in this Martian lake would have provided multiple opportunities for different types of microbes to survive.”

Though the existence of life on the Red Planet still being a mystery, NASA is, however, making use of Curiosity to discover more habitable environments on the ancient surface of the planet.

“Not only was this lake a very habitable environment on Mars, but there were multiple sub-environments within that lake,” says Hurowitz. “If microbial life was present on Mars at that time, there would have been multiple niches for those microbes to pick and choose from.”

Along with realization of the chemical environments of the lake, the researchers also noticed the changes in climate of Mars, informs Tech Times.