The finding fact that ancient Mars could support life, at least at the microbes level, enabling life on the planet is probably began before evolving on Earth. On March 12, 2013, scientists announced that the observation of Curiosity, NASA's rover which shows the microbes level might be able to survive on Mars in the past, when the Red Planet was still a place much warmer and wetter than today.
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| NASA'S Mars Curiosity rover. (Picture from: http://www.theweek.co.uk/) |
Actually, it is unclear when the life form on Mars it happened. But scientists estimate the time may be almost the same as the beginning of life appeared on Earth about 3.8 billion years ago. "We're talking about time that older than 3 billion years ago, plus-minus a few hundred million years, around the time when we begin to see the first record of life preserved in the Earth," said John Grotzinger, Curiosity's lead scientist from Caltech, Pasadena, in a press conference Tuesday, March 19, 2013.
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| This false-color map shows the area within Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (Aug. 6, 2012 EDT) and the location where Curiosity collected its first drilled sample at the "John Klein" rock. (Picture from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/) |
Conclusion that in the past, Mars could support life is obtained by inspection conducted by Curiosity probe teams on the material taken from the inside of Martian rocks. Last month, Curiosity using a drill to excavate the surface of the Red Planet at the deep of 6.4 cm, in of Martian region called John Klein. Although the excavation deep as the little finger, it is the deepest hole ever dug by the robot on Mars.
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| This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the first sample of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. The image was obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera on Feb. 20, or Sol 193, Curiosity's 193rd Martian day of operations. (Picture from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/) |
Curiosity analysis show that in the past John Klein region is flooded areas, such as a lake with a neutral pH. The instruments are mounted on the rover also detect a number of chemical elements required by living, such as sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon.
It must be remembered that the Curiosity mission scientists do not claim that life ever existed on the Red Planet. Until now, they have not found signs of Martian microbes. That is not surprising since the car-sized rover is not equipped with life-detection instruments.
Although not able to find life on Mars, the approximate age of the deposit was fishing an interesting speculation. If life ever existed on Mars, if it came first than life on Earth? If so, whether life on Earth is a living lineage of Mars?
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| The rocks comparison that seen by two NASA's rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, in two different areas on Mars. Left: "Wopmay" Stone at Endurance Crater, Meridiani Planium studied by the Opportunity rover. Right: "Sheepbed" Stone at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater which studied by the Curiosity rover. (Picture from: http://fox8.com/) |
Some types of microbes are very strong, and perhaps can survive interplanetary travel pass after being thrown out of their home planet due to asteroid impact. Orbital dynamics show easier for a stone to move from Mars to Earth than vice versa.
"Mars has written his autobiography in the rocks in Gale Crater, and we are just beginning to decipher the story," said Michael Meyer, a scientist from NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SPACE | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4174]
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