New Signs That Mars Could Occupied

Search for new planets that can be inhabited still not stopped. Long missions, such as looking for signs of life on Mars and the possibility that the planet could be habitable until now is still running.

Using a spectrometer from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers from Brown University recently discovered a mound of mineral silica on Mars. They found him in the planet called Syrtis Major, precisely in the area Nili Patera volcano is 3.7 billion years old.

Looking at the existing location near the volcano, researchers speculate that the mounds of silica is derived from hot springs that never existed in the region. Mounds were formed when hot water came out and dissolve the rock, making it rich in silica minerals from rocks. As the water cools down and in contact with air, called hydrated silica material is formed and set mound that is now found.

The presence of silica bumps that come from this hot spring, according to the researchers, is one sign that there is a small neighborhood on the Red Planet uninhabitable. "When you have water and heat, as found in this place, you have the opportunity to live and live," said John Mustard, a professor of geology who are involved in this research.

Other researchers, JR Skok, who also came from the same university, suspect that the existence of hot springs indicates that at least, there was a primitive life, such as microorganisms. If the hypothesis is true, then he reveals, "It would be possible to find a collection of fossils of microorganisms in the region."

So far, there has been no real evidence about the existence of life on Mars. However, the findings of silica on Mars is not the first. The findings had previously been conducted in 2007 by NASA's Spirit Mars mission. The uniqueness of this finding is the presence of silica mound intact.

The results of this study was published by John Mustard and JR Skok in the journal Nature Geoscience October 31, 2010. In the future, researchers hope to detect how is it possible this environment for occupancy, for example by looking at the temperature and acidity.