While finding life on Mars still eludes scientists, there is new research pointing to a good place to search for ancient life.
The last lake that existed on the red planet has been found by a team of scientists who believe the body of water may have been habitable until it dried up.
University of Colorado Boulder researchers analyzed chloride salt flats in the Meridiani region of Mars — close to the where the Opportunity rover is sitting on the planet’s surface, according to International Business Times.
Similar to Earth, large salt deposits on Mars are believed to be evaporated bodies of water. The large lake near Mars’ equator is relatively young, meaning it could have been the last pool of liquid water on the planet.
Over four billion years ago, Mars had oceans covering 20 percent of the planet. Then, most of the water disappeared. As Mars lost its atmosphere, the planet cooled over billions of years and the remaining water froze to form polar ice caps.
Why Mars lost its water is largely unknown. Some data suggest that water evaporated in the atmosphere and an unknown quantity may exist in underground reservoirs, according to Space.com. It is not known how much water has pooled below the Martian surface.
The University of Colorado Boulder scientists found the lake through digital terrain mapping and mineralogical analysis and said the lake was no older than 3.6 billion years.
The researchers published their results in the journal Geology.
Based on the relatively low salinity — 8 percent as salty as Earth’s oceans, the lake may have been hospital to microbial life.
Brian Hynek, lead author of the study, said according to International Business Times: “This was a long-lived lake, and we were able to put a very good time boundary on its maximum age. We can be pretty certain that this is one of the last instances of a sizeable lake on Mars. By salinity alone, it certainly seems as though this lake would have been habitable throughout much of its existence.”
Despite the existence of a lake filled with water, there are other conditions important to sustaining life. Acidity, oxygen and available nutrients are all important factors to maintain life. This long-extinct lake may still have evidence hidden within the salty remains.
“I think you’d want to target the salt deposits,” Hynek told Business Insider. “As the water evaporates away a lot of organic matter and a lot of microbial evidence gets encased in salts and is preserved for long time periods.”
Despite the rover being 100 miles from the lake, there is no journey planned to verify the scientists’ results. Hynek said he hopes NASA will make the lake a landing point for the next Mars rover, scheduled to launch in 2020.
