The Mars Curiosity rover released new information with proof a lake existed in the Gale Crater after finding the microbe called chemolithoautotrophs which are present in caves or at the bottom of the ocean, BBC News reported.
Scientists say the ancient crater used to be filled by lake water and may have supported the chemolithoautotrophs microbes, if they were present, which do not need light to survive, according to the BBC. The microbes get their energy from rocks and minerals and are usually found at the bottom of the ocean of in caves.
From the findings, these scientists have stated water was definitely present in Gale and it must have been mainly pH neutral and non-briney, BBC News reported. After gathering data and surveying the pictures and information from the crater by the Curiosity rover, scientists say the lake could have lasted for many millions of years.
"For all of us geologists who are very familiar with what the early Earth must have been like, what we see in Gale really doesn't look much different," Curiosity chief scientist and professor John Grotzinger told BBC News during the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting on Monday.
The data was collected through a six-month investigation and focused on location in the crater floor near the Curiosity rover's landing site, according to BBC News. The location is known as Yellowknife bay, and contains mudstones. The mudstones found today are old and dusty, but scientist can tell by their sediments were originally in water that probably started as a stream and then became a pooled lake, BBC News reported.
"I think what's very important here is that we've now made the case that these clay minerals were formed in situ," Grotzinger told BBC News. "They were not detrital; they were not blown in. They are representative of the aqueous environment that is suggested by the [look of the rocks], and that environment would have been a habitable one."
