Curiosity rover discovers that evidence of past life on Mars may have been erased
[....] when Curiosity took two samples of ancient mudstone, a sedimentary rock containing clay, from patches of the dried-out lake bed, dated to the same time and place (3.5 billion years ago and just 400m apart), researchers found that one patch contained only half the expected amount of clay minerals. Instead, that patch held a greater quantity of iron oxides, the compounds that give Mars its rusty hue.
The team believes the culprit behind this geological disappearing act is brine: supersalty water that leaked into the mineral-rich clay layers and destabilized them, flushing them away and wiping patches of both the geological — and possibly even the biological — record clean.
"We used to think that once these layers of clay minerals formed at the bottom of the lake in Gale Crater, they stayed that way, preserving the moment in time they formed for billions of years," study lead author Tom Bristow, a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, said in a statement. "But later brines broke down these clay minerals in some places — essentially resetting the rock record."
[....] "We've learned something very important: There are some parts of the Martian rock record that aren't so good at preserving evidence of the planet's past and possible life," co-author Ashwin Vasavada, a Curiosity project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in the statement. "The fortunate thing is, we find both close together in Gale Crater and can use mineralogy to tell which is which."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 18 2021, @04:28AM (4 children)
Have they dusted for prints yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIu0r2K4Rc8 [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @06:02AM
Salty 'murikans were there. Left and right, no matter.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday July 18 2021, @12:22PM (1 child)
Bloody cancel culture again, is nothing safe?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @12:17AM
Commercial outrage seems like it's safe.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 19 2021, @04:19PM
Well, they certainly have plenty of dust.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @04:46AM
Fossil fuels on Mars. LET'S GOOOO
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @05:06AM (1 child)
-nomsg
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @07:18AM
What a waste of money! We could have had another B2 bomber instead of this garbage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @09:45AM (2 children)
NASA scientist's brother works for the police. He arrives at a crime scene and finds a dead man with a bullet hole in his head. He then claims the culprit is a bullet.
The real question is who pulled the trigger. What NASA should be asking is who wiped down the rocks with brine and why? I for one would be looking for Zhurong's track prints.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @04:50PM (1 child)
Please also look for a better joke.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @07:19PM
Give my regards to Chairman Xi, comrade.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @10:12PM (2 children)
They live underground and travel via gateways generated by obelisks and pyramids. They utilize special crystals in time travel wands/staffs.
Their planet was being attacked so they traveled to Earth and colonized it before again being attacked and retreating to the underground, or hollow Earth.
The Lizards have managed to cloak themselves and also to obtain and retain the appearance of a human, but in order to maintain that appearance they must consume human flesh, which is found in most food, especially those with occult logos.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @12:15AM (1 child)
Hillary lost. Get over it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @07:20AM
Snopes rates this comment as false. An exhaustive list of cited sources reached an overwhelming consensus that Hillary does not, in fact, retain the appearance of human.