A new discovery concerning Gale Crater mud on Mars increases the likelihood that the planet has developed some form of life in the past. This time, it’s not the composition of the mud, but its dried-out, cracked pattern of neat hexagons that matters.
When mud dries, it typically forms a more squared-off pattern. But when mud dries, re-moistens, and dries again repeatedly, the pattern can shift to board-game-like hexagons.
“This is the first tangible evidence we’ve seen that the ancient climate of Mars had such regular, Earth-like wet-dry cycles,” said William Rapin, a research scientist at France’s Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, in a statement.
Since NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down on Mars in 2012, it has explored the planet’s Gale Crater, a 95-mile-wide basin believed to have once contained a large lake. The setting has helped scientists learn a great deal from Mars’ dried-up, ancient mud.
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