NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Evidence Of A Life Supporting Wet And Dry Cycle

JAKARTA - During its 11-year research, NASA's Curiosity rover has been conducting extensive searches for signs of life on Mars. Now that right has been revealed that this car-sized robot may have found something.

In 2021, this rover detects an unusual array of polygon-shaped cracks in soil where scientists now believe it is evidence that the Red Planet once had Earth-like conditions that could allow microorganisms to survive 3.6 billion years ago.

The mysterious mud crack on the bottom of the ancient lake hints that the wet and dry cycles similar to the season we experienced on planet Earth today may have existed on Mars.

Such a cycle is important to drive the formation of carbon-based "polymers" - known as building blocks of organic compounds and even DNA.

"This is the first real evidence that the ancient Martian climate has a regular wet-dry cycle, similar to Earth," said lead author William Rapin of the Institute de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologe in France. "But what's more important is that the wet-dry cycle is beneficial - maybe even needed - for molecular evolution that could lead to life."

Curiosity launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2011 as part of a two-year mission to gather information about whether Mars could support life. Due to its success, the mission was extended indefinitely, and mud cracks were detected just two years ago after the rover climbed to the summit of Mount Sharp as high as 15,840 feet.

The crack was found on the site of an ancient lake, pinched between a sediment layer rich in clay and a salter layer of sulfide.

These two contrasting layers show that wet and dry cycles have occurred, because clay usually appears in humid and sulfide conditions generally form when water drys.

It is estimated that this unusual crack is also formed in the midst of this, changing from dry "t-junction intersection" to a hexagonal form due to being exposed to water.

The long chain of carbon-based molecules known as polymers may also have formed, most of which are known as the building blocks of the living chemistry. In 2017 similar cracks were also found in nearby rocks known as "Old Soaker".

It's unclear why this cycle may have stopped, although some scientists believe that the temperature used to be much warmer than it is now, facilitating the flow of liquid water. "This paper expands the type of discovery made by Curiosity," said Arwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

"For more than 11 years, we have found a lot of evidence that ancient Mars could support microbial life. Now, this mission has found evidence of conditions that may promote the origin of life," Vasavada said, quoted by DailyMail.

Unlike Earth, Mars does not have any tectonic plates, meaning that prehistoric deposits are not buried well below the surface and vice versa are well maintained. As a result, scientists believe that prehistoric biology and geology can be examined more carefully.

"We are quite lucky to have planets like close Mars that still keep memories of natural processes that may have led to life," said Rapin.