NASA: Mars conditions may have once supported life

NASA ‘s Curiosity rover has discovered evidence that the martian environment may have supported life billions of years ago.

Chemical analysis of the drill samples taken from the Red Planet’s rocky soil shows that it contains clay minerals formed in an aquatic environment that was slightly salty, non-acidic, with plenty of energy-rich minerals — including sulfates.

According to Curiosity’s lead scientist, John Grotzinger from the California Institute of Technology, the rover is in an area known as Yellowknife Bay, where water likely once flowed.

...“We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life, that if you lived there, the water would have been pure enough to drink,” said Grotzinger.

Scientists did not go so far as to conclusively declare a finding of the kind of organic compounds thought to be essential to life. They failed to find the carbon-based precursors to amino acids and sugars, crucial to life as we know it on Earth. However, NASA scientists say they intend to investigate the question further.

http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nasa-mars-may-have-once-held-life/