The Curiosity rover found what looks like coral on Mars. It’s an interesting bit of mineralization at the very least. What it isn’t, yet, is definitive proof of organic life.
There’s an upside to that rather dour observation. Martian rocks are typically pretty straightforward in one way, if not many others. Their shear when they break is typically sharp, right-angled fracturing. They don’t look like “corals”.
In that sense, they behave like normal terrestrial sandstones. Not much else is normal about them, and it’s hard to assume expertise on billions of years of geological processes on another planet.
That’s one of the reasons this “coral” is so interesting. It’s atypical for Mars and Martian rocks in general. The branching patterns do at least look very like corals.
However – Mineralization works in many morphologies. If you’ve ever seen those “grow your own crystals” novelties, you’ll know that minerals can create some quite complex shapes.
That’s a horrendously oversimplified version of mineralization, which may also use multiple fluids and combinations of chemicals and environmental conditions to create a vast range of shapes and sizes of mineral combinations. It’s therefore a bit hard to say Martian geochemistry couldn’t create these shapes without biological help.
Mars also has clays. A fossilized clay formation could look like the “coral” with ease. Clay is, by definition, and in its chemical nature, distinct from surrounding soils and often separate from other structures.
But –
What’s very interesting about this “coral” is the degree of small branching structures. The branches are clearly distinct and highly articulated in terms of morphology. Not bad for billions of years.
There’s been much speculation and a few insightful guesses regarding clays on Mars as habitats. If the clays were habitats for microbiota, maybe they could form colonies with distinct shapes.
For example – What would the Martian equivalent of a stromatolite look like? These ancient, super-tough life forms still exist on Earth today, but they’re not what you’d call an instant gimme for recognition of life. Quite the opposite; they often just look like weird rocks, but they’re not actually rocks.
This sort of thing matters because if Martian life does or did exist, it would have to have had a range of ecological supports like stromatolites.
To bastardize the Fermi Paradox a bit – Would we know alien life if we saw it?
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
