Curiosity rover finds large carbon deposits on Mars

Summary

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sees its tracks receding into the distance at a site nicknamed “Ubajara” on April 30, 2023. This site is where Curiosity made the discovery of siderite, a mineral that may help explain the fate of the planet’s thicker ancient atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Research from NASA's Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the red planet was ever capable of supporting life. Lead author Dr. Ben Tutolo, Ph.D., an associate professor with the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, is a participating scientist on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover team. The team is working to understand climate transitions and habitability on ancient Mars as Curiosity explores Gale Crater. The paper, published in the journal Science, reveals that data from three of Curiosity's drill sites had siderite, an iron carbonate material, within sulfate-rich layers of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. "The discovery of large carbon deposits in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars," says Tutolo. Reaching the strata, he says, was a long-term goal of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Ben Tutolo, associate professor in the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, is the lead researcher on a paper about Mars. Tutolo is a participating scientist on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover team. Credit: Riley Brandt/University of Calgary "The abundance of highly soluble salts in these rocks and similar deposits mapped over much of Mars has been used as evidence of the 'great drying' of Mars during its dramatic shift from a warm and wet early Mars to its current, cold and dry state," says Tutolo. Sedimentary carbonate has long been predicted to have formed...