{"id":49686,"date":"2023-09-23T10:42:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T10:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2eb7af9d-26c1-4f87-9775-4af5bd41bfa5"},"modified":"2023-09-23T12:32:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T12:32:31","slug":"marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars’s seasons may have helped life emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Ezzy Pearson\n <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 23 September 2023 at 10:42 AM<\/p>

\n\n

The Curiosity rover has found evidence that ancient Mars experienced a cyclical climate similar to that of Earth\u2019s seasons, potentially increasing the planet\u2019s past habitability.<\/p>

Though Mars is now an arid and dry place, liquid water did once flow across its surface.<\/p>

Observations by NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover<\/a> in a region believed to have once been a lake show deposits of salt that were laid down 3.6 to 3.8 billion years ago.<\/p>

The deposits are marked with a ridged pattern of hexagons.<\/p>

If there’s life on Mars, it could be common across the Universe<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Mud cracks suggest Mars once had recurring wet\u2013dry weather cycles that may have created the conditions for life to emerge. Credit: NASA\/JPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>
On Earth, similar patterns are created in basins that dry out seasonally, suggesting Mars experienced wet and dry seasons in the past.<\/p>
Water is one of two ingredients necessary for the emergence of life (at least as we know it) found on Mars.<\/p>
The other is organic molecules which form the building blocks of life.<\/p>
$\"Salt$
Salt hexagons of Badwater Basin, Inyo County, California, USA. Credit: Richard Jennings \/ 500px \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Curiosity and sibling rover Perseverance<\/a> have both found several simple organic molecules, but for life to emerge these must first arrange themselves into more complex forms, such as RNA.<\/p>
One way this can happen is by repeatedly changing the concentration of the chemicals in water.<\/p>
This is something that happens in areas which dry out seasonally, meaning such salt flats could have once been the breeding ground for emergent Martian life.<\/p>
www.cnrs.fr\/en\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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By Ezzy Pearson Published: Saturday, 23 September 2023 at 10:42 AM The Curiosity rover has found evidence that ancient Mars experienced a cyclical climate similar to that of Earth\u2019s seasons, potentially increasing the planet\u2019s past habitability. Though Mars is now an arid and dry place, liquid water did once flow across its surface. Observations by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":49687,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge.jpg",1200,802,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge.jpg",1200,802,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/09\/marss-seasons-may-have-helped-life-emerge.jpg",1200,802,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ezzy Pearson Published: Saturday, 23 September 2023 at 10:42 AM The Curiosity rover has found evidence that ancient Mars experienced a cyclical climate similar to that of Earth\u2019s seasons, potentially increasing the planet\u2019s past habitability. Though Mars is now an arid and dry place, liquid water did once flow across its surface. Observations by…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/49686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}