Publication Date:
2013-12-11
Description:
The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus were measured directly as key biogenic elements; by inference, phosphorus is assumed to have been available. The environment probably had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the post-Noachian history of Mars.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Grotzinger, J P -- Sumner, D Y -- Kah, L C -- Stack, K -- Gupta, S -- Edgar, L -- Rubin, D -- Lewis, K -- Schieber, J -- Mangold, N -- Milliken, R -- Conrad, P G -- DesMarais, D -- Farmer, J -- Siebach, K -- Calef, F 3rd -- Hurowitz, J -- McLennan, S M -- Ming, D -- Vaniman, D -- Crisp, J -- Vasavada, A -- Edgett, K S -- Malin, M -- Blake, D -- Gellert, R -- Mahaffy, P -- Wiens, R C -- Maurice, S -- Grant, J A -- Wilson, S -- Anderson, R C -- Beegle, L -- Arvidson, R -- Hallet, B -- Sletten, R S -- Rice, M -- Bell, J 3rd -- Griffes, J -- Ehlmann, B -- Anderson, R B -- Bristow, T F -- Dietrich, W E -- Dromart, G -- Eigenbrode, J -- Fraeman, A -- Hardgrove, C -- Herkenhoff, K -- Jandura, L -- Kocurek, G -- Lee, S -- Leshin, L A -- Leveille, R -- Limonadi, D -- Maki, J -- McCloskey, S -- Meyer, M -- Minitti, M -- Newsom, H -- Oehler, D -- Okon, A -- Palucis, M -- Parker, T -- Rowland, S -- Schmidt, M -- Squyres, S -- Steele, A -- Stolper, E -- Summons, R -- Treiman, A -- Williams, R -- Yingst, A -- MSL Science Team -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Jan 24;343(6169):1242777. doi: 10.1126/science.1242777. Epub 2013 Dec 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Geologic and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24324272" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Bays
;
Carbon/analysis
;
*Exobiology
;
*Extraterrestrial Environment
;
Geologic Sediments/analysis/classification
;
Hydrogen/analysis
;
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
;
Iron/analysis/chemistry
;
*Mars
;
Nitrogen/analysis
;
Oxidation-Reduction
;
Oxygen/analysis
;
Phosphorus/analysis
;
Salinity
;
Sulfur/analysis/chemistry
;
*Water
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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