Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that water once flowed beneath the surface of Mars. If so, the Red Planet may have remained habitable for life much longer than previously thought.

That’s the view of researchers from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).

An intriguing study has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets.

Rock formations – Earth and Mars

The research shows that ancient sand dunes in Gale Crater, a region now being explored by NASA’s Curiosity rover, gradually turned into rock after interacting with underground water billions of years ago.

That Mars machinery has been on the prowl since August 6, 2012, wheeling about Gale crater and Mount Sharp.

Image credit: Utah Geological Survey

Led by Dimitra Atri, principal investigator of NYUAD’s Space Exploration Laboratory, with research assistant Vignesh Krishnamoorthy, the research team compared data from the Curiosity rover with rock formations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) desert that formed under similar conditions on Earth.

Protected environments

The scientists found that water from a nearby Martian mountain once seeped into the dunes through tiny cracks, soaking the sand from below and leaving behind minerals such as gypsum, the same mineral found in Earth’s deserts. These minerals, they report, can trap and preserve traces of organic material, making them valuable targets for future missions seeking evidence of past life.

A: This is the surface of the UAE desert.
Image credit: New York University Abu Dhabi

“Our findings show that Mars didn’t simply go from wet to dry,” said Atri. “Even after its lakes and rivers disappeared, small amounts of water continued to move underground, creating protected environments that could have supported microscopic life.”

This research provides new insight into how Mars evolved over time and highlights the potential of subsurface environments as promising sites to search for signs of ancient life.

Complementary field studies

According to the paper: “Ancient Mars had stable and abundant aqueous environments; however, due to the gradual loss of most of its atmosphere, the environment evolved into cold and dry landscapes that we see today. The surface of Mars shows signs of wet and dry environments as captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover.”

The study group investigated the solidified dunes in the Stimson formation of the Gale crater.

“Using data from various instruments on the rover, we study the interaction between dry aeolian environments with groundwater and surface water, along with complementary field studies in the United Arab Emirates. We find that water interactions with dunes could be prime targets for the search for life on Mars,” they report.

Surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

UAE: global space exploration

Supported by the NYUAD Research Institute, the study was conducted at NYUAD’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Science. NYU Abu Dhabi is a partnership between New York University and the emirate of Abu Dhabi, contributing to the UAE’s growing role in global space exploration.

This study was conducted in collaboration with James Weston of NYUAD’s Core Technology Platform and Panče Naumov’s research group.

To access the study – “Aeolian Sediment Lithification From Late-Stage Aqueous Activity in the Gale Crater: Implications for Habitability on Mars” – go to:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JE008804