NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has made a stunning discovery that will have cracked how the crimson planet as soon as supported life.

The car-sized robotic, which touched down on the floor again in 2012, discovered an array of well-preserved historic mud cracks suggestive of previous moist and dry seasons.

It's lengthy been theorised that persistent Earth-like climate cycles might have helped microbial life thrive on Mars, and researchers consider the distinctive hexagonal patterns stands out as the proof.

William Rapin, lead creator of a brand new paper within the Nature journal, mentioned: "This is the first tangible evidence we have seen that the ancient climate of Mars had such regular, Earth-like wet-dry cycles.

"Wet-dry cycles are useful - perhaps even required - for the molecular evolution that would result in life."

Curiosity first noticed the mud cracks in 2021 after drilling a pattern from a location nicknamed Pontours.

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It got here throughout it throughout its ascent of the three-mile-high Mount Sharp within the Gale Crater.

Different minerals have been discovered throughout the world, with some components wealthy in clay (which normally varieties in water) and others with sulfates (which are inclined to kind as water dries up).

The cracks had been present in a transitional zone, providing a glimpse right into a interval when lengthy dry spells grew to become extra prevalent and the crater's previous lakes and rivers started to recede.

Mud fractures into T-shaped junctions because it dries out, however softens and turns Y-shaped when repeatedly uncovered to water once more, finally forming a hexagonal sample that has been preserved for billions of years.

These wet-dry cycles are very important to the formation of polymers - the molecules thought-about to be the chemical constructing blocks of life.

The cracks are under no circumstances the primary signal of Mars as soon as supporting microbial life, however NASA mentioned the paper's findings had been one other signal of how far more proof there might be for Curiosity to search out.

Content Source: information.sky.com