NASA's Curiosity Rover •

STATES CHRONICLE – A new study suggests that the presence of manganese oxide in Martian soil may be evidence that the Red Planet once hosted liquid water and oxygen rich skies.

Study authors explained that the mineral can form only in oxygen-rich environments, which is not exactly matching the landscape we see today on Mars.

Nina Lanza, lead author of the study and researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and her team based the new research on rock sample data gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

The research team noted that Curiosity data clearly showed traces of manganese oxide in the rock samples from the Martian surface. On our planet, the compound can form only in the presence of oxygen.

The latest study confirms the hypothesis of a separate study published last week in the journal Science. That study found that ripples in the sand that can only occur on Mars due to its thin atmosphere were present in a rock layer dating back to 3.7 billion years.

That research suggested that at some point the Red Planet somehow lost its ability of holding atmosphere, which eventually led to water depletion as well.

The two studies are in line with past research which had tried to find how exactly Mars looked like billions of years ago. Researchers were puzzled by fossilized traces of liquid water on the planet such as telltale signs of ancient tsunamis and lake basins.

A 2015 study even speculated that the planet once had 20 percent of its surface covered by an ocean.

Curiosity detected the presence of manganese oxide with help from its Chem Cam tool. The Cam uses laser technology to break rocks into various elements which glow at different wavelengths. The glow of the elements is next analyzed by a spectrometer.

Lanza noted that manganese oxide deposits on Mars had the same structure as those on Earth. In fact, the substance probably formed when manganese was dissolved by water under oxygen-rich conditions.

Lanza said in a recent interview that the deposits suggest the presence of at least two now long gone elements: liquid water and a strong oxidant. Scientists are now trying to come up with theories on the source of the oxygen.

One hypothesis is an atmosphere rich in the element. This theory, however, was challenged in the past because there are no traces of vegetation on Mars whose photosynthesis could have led to an oxygen rich atmosphere.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Similar to NASA’s Apollo mission which was seen as a hoax by numerous physicists and commentators, the Curiosity Rover wandering on Mars surface and keeping devotees on their toes about water, methane and conceivable life on Mars, has many thinking it is an invented story. The shadow of a silhouette resembling that of a human spotted on Mars red planet from NASA’s site has led to insane doomsday hypothesis this week.

The photograph shows the shadow of a man on top of the reflection of the Mars Curiosity Rover. The human-like shadow is supposedly hanging over NASA’s Curiosity Rover on Mars, suggesting it might be trying to repair it.This has led to the idea that NASA may be misleading the general population for some reason about not having sent anybody with the spacecraft to Mars. Nevertheless, there are a few conceivable explanations for the photograph out of which the most obvious is that there isn’t really a shadow of any human in it.

Subsequently, the way the details in the photo are depicted is a matter of perception. The eyes might just be playing tricks convincing the mind to think that what is depicted looks like a human shadow. These visual trickeries may have played a crucial role in the mind of conspiracy theorists as they try to decipher what is depicted.

Another explanation might be that the Mars Curiosity Rover may even now be on our planet and was maneuvered by somebody at NASA. The hypothesis suggested by the web conspiracy swarm is that the silhouette may be of an alien life structure inhabiting the red planet. That alien may be interested about the visit of the Curiosity Rover on the Martian soil.

There is also a probability that NASA may be selecting some extraterrestrial life-structures to get support from them in their ventures on the red planet. All joking aside, there is not any clear explanation to tell what’s truly in the photograph.

Whether NASA comes forth or not, this could be a fabrication about Mars leading to superfluous plots and gossipy tidbits about UFOs.

Official reports about the study made on the red planet’s surface suggest that sedimentary rocks on Mars resemble to structures on Earth made by life.Scientist and geobiologist Nora Noffke noted that pictures of the Gillespie Lake outcrop, in the Gale Crater reveal structures formed by the organisms that inhabit drying lakebeds. The signs are like the rocks on the west Australian dresser that is known to be shaped by the oldest life-forms on Earth. Nevertheless, the specialist conceded that the best way to asses her speculation is getting a few specimens from the Mars to Earth to have a detailed investigation.

Image Source: NASA

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