| Literature DB >> 24324272 |
J P Grotzinger1, D Y Sumner, L C Kah, K Stack, S Gupta, L Edgar, D Rubin, K Lewis, J Schieber, N Mangold, R Milliken, P G Conrad, D DesMarais, J Farmer, K Siebach, F Calef, J Hurowitz, S M McLennan, D Ming, D Vaniman, J Crisp, A Vasavada, K S Edgett, M Malin, D Blake, R Gellert, P Mahaffy, R C Wiens, S Maurice, J A Grant, S Wilson, R C Anderson, L Beegle, R Arvidson, B Hallet, R S Sletten, M Rice, J Bell, J Griffes, B Ehlmann, R B Anderson, T F Bristow, W E Dietrich, G Dromart, J Eigenbrode, A Fraeman, C Hardgrove, K Herkenhoff, L Jandura, G Kocurek, S Lee, L A Leshin, R Leveille, D Limonadi, J Maki, S McCloskey, M Meyer, M Minitti, H Newsom, D Oehler, A Okon, M Palucis, T Parker, S Rowland, M Schmidt, S Squyres, A Steele, E Stolper, R Summons, A Treiman, R Williams, A Yingst.
Abstract
The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus were measured directly as key biogenic elements; by inference, phosphorus is assumed to have been available. The environment probably had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the post-Noachian history of Mars.Entities:
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Year: 2013 PMID： 24324272 DOI： 10.1126/science.1242777
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Science ISSN： 0036-8075 Impact factor: 47.728