Here’s the latest dirt on Mars.
NASA’s trusty Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the so-called red planet for years, just unearthed something huge — a stash of carbon-rich carbonate minerals indicating that the spinning object of Elon Musk’s affection may have once had the goods to host human life.
“It tells us that the planet was habitable and that the models for habitability are correct,” said Ben Tutolo, lead study author and associate professor at the University of Calgary, in a matter-of-fact statement.
Carbonate minerals typically form when carbon dioxide reacts with water and rock — which makes them a cosmic calling card for life-friendly environments.
Scientists have spotted them on Mars before, but Curiosity’s latest batch offers the clearest proof yet that Mars was once wet, warm — maybe even welcoming.
And these weren’t just any old carbonates — they were packed with a mineral called siderite, an iron-heavy substance that makes up a staggering 5–10% of the samples.
What’s more, they were found alongside salts that dissolve easily in water — a sign that liquid H2O was likely flowing during formation.
“The broader implications are the planet was habitable up until this time, but then, as the [carbon dioxide] that had been warming the planet started to precipitate as siderite, it likely impacted Mars’ ability to stay warm,” Tutolo explained.
In short: Mars may have gone from cozy greenhouse to ice-cold rock thanks to its own carbon cycle.
Adding to the intrigue, Curiosity also sniffed out iron oxyhydroxides — minerals that suggest Mars once had a cycling climate system not unlike Earth’s, with carbon dioxide bouncing between rock and atmosphere.
In fact, based on the new readings and data from orbit, scientists believe similar layers across Mars could’ve trapped up to 36 millibars’ worth of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
That’s a massive climate shift in planetary terms.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Tutolo is working on ways to fight climate change using similar rock-forming techniques — by turning CO₂ into carbonates here at home.
“What we’re trying to do on Earth to fight climate change is something that nature may have already done on Mars,” he said.
“Learning about the mechanisms of making these minerals on Mars helps us to better understand how we can do it here,” he continued.
Tutolo also shared that studying the collapse of Mars’ “warm and wet early days” also tells us that “habitability is a very fragile thing.”
Curiosity may have just cracked one of Mars’ biggest mysteries — and thrown Earth a scientific lifeline in the process.
Read the full article here
