NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
NASA’s Rover Perseverance found in Mars large quartz crystals with a high degree of purity, which probably formed in the presence of hot water and may contain signs of old Martian life.
For the first time, pure quartz crystals were detected on Mars, as well as other precious stones.
The revelation is made in a new one, which is in the next edition of Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
According to investigators, these crystals, in addition to constituting evidence of past hydrothermal activity, may contain well -preserved signs of ancient Martian life.
Since arriving in Mars in 2020, NASA’s Rover Perseverance has been scouring the bottom of the vast old lake probably formed by the impact of an asteroid.
Last year, as the Rover remembers left the bottom of the lake and began to climb the crater, where rocks and geology are different.
The Perseverance Supercam found large quartzwith centimeters wide, a crystal made of silicon, as well as other crystals that contain silicon, such as opal and chalcedon, which must have formed in the Presence of ancient hot water.
At the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference in Texas (USA), this Monday, the research leader Pierre Beckfrom the University of Grenoble (France), stressed that the only way we know of forming such large and pure quartz crystals on earth is from complex hot water systems, suggesting a similar origin in Mars.
As the scientist explained, the Quartz is also useful as an old life record.
“We can see bioassine over 3.5 billion yearsand the reason we can observe them on earth is because these bioassinatures are preserved in a silicon matrix, which is a very efficient preserver of morphological or molecular signatures, ”said Beck, quoted by the New Scientist.
