A careful study of images taken by the NASA rover Curiosity has revealed intriguing similarities between ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars and structures shaped by microbes on Earth. The findings suggest, but do not prove, that life may have existed earlier on the Red Planet.
The photos were taken as Curiosity drove through the Gillespie Lake outcrop in Yellowknife Bay, a dry lakebed that underwent seasonal flooding billions of years ago. Mars and Earth shared a similar early history. The Red Planet was a much warmer and wetter world back then.
On Earth, carpet-like colonies of microbes trap and rearrange sediments in shallow bodies of water such as lakes and costal areas, forming distinctive features that fossilize over time. These structures, known as microbially-induced sedimentary structures (or MISS), are found in shallow water settings all over the world and in ancient rocks spanning Earths history.
Nora Noffke, a geobiologist at Old Dominion University in Virginia, has spent the past 20 years studying these microbial structures. Last year, she reported the discovery of MISS that are 3.48 billion years old in the Western Australias Dresser Formation, making them potentially the oldest signs of life on Earth.
In a paper published online last month in the journal Astrobiology (the print version comes out this week), Noffke details the striking morphological similarities between Martian sedimentary structures in the Gillespie Lake outcrop (which is at most 3.7 billion years old) and microbial structures on Earth.
The distinctive shapes include erosional remnants, pockets, domes, roll-ups, pits, chips and cracks, which on Earth can extend from a few centimeters to many kilometers.
Although Noffke makes a tantalizing case for possible signs of ancient life on Mars, her report is not a definitive proof that these structures were shaped by biology. Getting such confirmation would involve returning rock samples to Earth and conducting additional microscopic analyses, a mission that isnt scheduled anytime in the near future.
All I can say is, heres my hypothesis and heres all the evidence that I have, Noffke says, although I do think that this evidence is a lot.
The fact that she pointed out these structures is a great contribution to the field, says Penelope Boston, a geomicrobiologist at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Along with the recent reports of methane and organics on Mars, her findings add an intriguing piece to the puzzle of a possible history for life on our neighboring planet.
Ive seen many papers that say Look, heres a pile of dirt on Mars, and heres a pile of dirt on Earth, says Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASAs Ames Research Center and an associate editor of the journal Astrobiology. And because they look the same, the same mechanism must have made each pile on the two planets.
McKay adds: Thats an easy argument to make, and its typically not very convincing. However, Noffkes paper is the most carefully done analysis of the sort that Ive seen, which is why its the first of its kind published in Astrobiology.
The images on which Noffke drew are publicly available on the Mars Science Laboratory page on NASAs website.
In one image, I saw something that looked very familiar, Noffke recalls. So I took a closer look, meaning I spent several weeks investigating certain images centimeter by centimeter, drawing sketches, and comparing them to data from terrestrial structures. And Ive worked on these for 20 years, so I knew what to look for.
Noffke compared the rover pictures to images taken at several sites on Earth, including modern sediment surfaces in Mellum Island, Germany; Portsmouth Island, USA; and Carbla Point, Western Australia; as well as older fossils of microbial mats in Bahar Alouane, Tunisia; the Pongola Supergroup in Africa; and the Dresser Formation in Western Australia.
The photos showed striking morphological similarities between the terrestrial and Martian sedimentary structures.
The distribution patterns of the microbial structures on Earth vary depending on where they are found. Different types of structures are found together in different types of environments. For instance, microbial mats that grow in rivers will create a different set of associations than those that grow in seasonally flooded environments.
The patterns found in the Gillespie Lake outcrop are consistent with the microbial structures found in similar environments on Earth.
Whats more, the terrestrial structures change in a specific way over time. As the microbial mats form, grow, dry up, crack and re-grow, specific structures become associated with them. Here again, Noffke found that the distribution pattern in Martian rocks correspond with microbial structures on Earth that have changed over time. Taken together, these clues strengthen her argument beyond simply pointing out the similarities in shape.
In her paper, she also describes alternative processes through which these could have formed. For instance, the chips, pits and cracks could be the product of erosion by salt, water, or wind.
But if the Martian structures arent of biological origin, Noffke says, then the similarities in morphology, but also in distribution patterns with regards to MISS on Earth would be an extraordinary coincidence.
At this point, all Id like to do is point out these similarities, she adds. Further evidence must be provided to verify this hypothesis.
