NASA’s Curiosity rover has found some of the best evidence yet that ancient life may have existed on Mars — and an answer for what could have wiped it out.
When drilling into rocks on Mount Sharp, the central peak of the Red Planet’s Gale Crater, the rover found evidence of siderite, an iron carbonate whose presence suggests Mars once had a carbon cycle. This hints that Mars once had potentially habitable conditions, and therefore possibly even life.
The finding, hidden from satellite scans, raises hopes that once samples collected by the Perseverance rover are brought to Earth, scientists may find evidence that ancient life once thrived on our now-desiccated neighbor. The researchers published their findings April 17 in the journal Science.
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