Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, July 19 (Reporter Liu Xia ) A research team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published an article in the latest issue of "Science" that the "Curiosity" Mars rover is investigating in Gale It was discovered in the clay-rich sedimentary rock near the crater landing site that evidence of ancient life in parts of Mars may have been cleared by salt water, but this surprising discovery did not reduce the possibility of scientists discovering life on this red planet
Liu Xia Gale Crater was once a lake, formed by an asteroid hitting Mars about 3.
This time, "Curiosity" collected two samples of ancient mudstone (a kind of clay-rich sedimentary rock) formed in the same age (dating back to 3.
The research team believes that the “culprit” behind the disappearance of part of the clay is salt water: ultra-high-salinity water seeps into the mineral-rich clay layer, destroys the stability of the clay layer, and washes it away, thereby setting the geological record Even the "clues" of the biological records were wiped clean
However, the researchers pointed out that even if the chemical transformation process (diagenesis) in the sediments erases some evidence that ancient life may have existed on the surface of Mars, it may create new life underground
The Curiosity mission to Mars began nine years ago and has been studying the red planet to determine the habitability of Mars
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