Salty Mars soils could hold clue for evidence of life

William Atkins
Monday, 20 April 2009 19:15

Science - Space

The planet Mars is called the "Red Planet" by us humans because of its reddish appearance when we look at it.

The red color comes from iron oxide found on the Martian surface. Such irons make our tools look rusty-red here on Earth when we leave them out in the rain and some of our soils and rocks appear reddish, too.

The Phoenix Lander also discovered in 2008 that the Martian soil is slightly alkaline and contains chloride, sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

All of these nutrients are important for simple organisms (and us humans, too) to grow and survive.

Putting all of this information together--salty water on Mars, along with the presence of life-providing nutrients, and salty water on the very cold polar regions of Earth that also contain microbes--doesn’t mean that primitive life is or was present on Mars.

However, it does provide additional evidence that primitive life could have evolved millions of years ago on Mars and might even exist now just under the surface of the planet.

Only time will tell as countries send additional unmanned probes to Mars and, beginning around 2030, manned expeditions to the planet.