According to a research paper published in the Journal Geophysical Research Letters, the location where NASA plans to land its Mars 2020 rover on Mars could hold signs of ancient microbial life.
Scientists are set to investigate the Jezero crater in the Mars 2020 mission, which was home to a lake 3.5 billion years ago and is littered with carbonates and hydrated silica.
Carbonates located in the crater’s inner rim have been found to survive in fossils on Earth for billions of years and hydrated silica was discovered in the delta that is know for its ability to preserve biosignatures.
According to the NASA, the Mars 2020 mission will solely focused on astrobiology, or ‘the study of life throughout the universe’, NASA shared in a statement.
Just like the 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater, which NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring since August 2012, Jezero apparently hosted a lake in the ancient past. Orbital imagery has also revealed the remnants of a large delta in Jezero, which marks where a river drained into the lake.
