The Daily Star,
January 20, 2013
 |
| This view of layered rocks on the floor of McLaughlin Crater on Mars shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water in this undated handout photo from NASA. (REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/HO) |
WASHINGTON:
A US spacecraft orbiting Mars has provided evidence of an ancient crater lake
fed by groundwater, adding further support to theories that the Red Planet may
once have hosted life, NASA said Sunday.
Spectrometer
data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows traces of carbonate
and clay minerals usually formed in the presence of water at the bottom of the
1.4-mile (2.2-kilometer) deep McLaughlin Crater.
"These
new observations suggest the formation of the carbonates and clay in a
groundwater-fed lake within the closed basin of the crater," NASA said of
the findings, which were published in the online edition of Nature Geoscience.
"Some
researchers propose the crater interior catching the water," the space
agency said, adding that "the underground zone contributing the water could
have been wet environments and potential habitats."
The crater
lacks large inflow channels, so the lake was likely fed by groundwater,
scientists said.
The latest
observations "provide the best evidence for carbonate forming within a
lake environment instead of being washed into a crater from outside," said
Joseph Michalski, lead author of the paper.
The
57-mile-wide crater sits at the low end of a regional slope several hundreds of
miles long and, as on Earth, groundwater-fed lakes would be expected to occur
at low elevations.
NASA's Mars
rover Curiosity has been exploring the planet's surface since its dramatic
landing on August 6, collecting rock samples and beaming back rare images in
anticipation of an eventual manned mission.
MRO
scientist Rich Zurek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the latest
findings indicate "a more complex Mars than previously appreciated, with
at least some areas more likely to reveal signs of ancient life than
others."
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