A team of scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) announced the discovery of manganese oxides in Martian rocks, according to the website of the American space agency NASA.
The high-manganese material is reported to have been found by the Curiosity rover in crevices in sandstone in the Kimberley area of Gale Crater.
According to scientists, this may indicate a high level of oxygen in the ancient atmosphere of the Red Planet. The find puzzled the researchers.
“On Earth, manganese-rich rocks can only form when one of two conditions is met: the presence of a high level of oxygen or the presence of special microorganisms,” says lead author Nina Lanza. - So we think, where did these molecules come from on Mars?
Researchers are leaning towards the version of the high oxygen content, which is why, in their opinion, in ancient times Mars was very similar to Earth. The source of oxygen could be, for example, water, which was split under the action of cosmic radiation into hydrogen and oxygen. Computer simulations have shown that this is possible. Under these conditions, the lighter hydrogen escapes into space, while oxygen is chemically bound by the rock matter and remains in the atmosphere.
This scenario partly explains the dominance of reddish iron oxides on the surface of Mars, Lanz said. At the same time, scientists recognize that much higher concentrations of oxygen in the atmosphere are required to oxidize manganese to the state in which it was found. By the way, researchers have not yet rejected the version about the presence in the past of a large number of microorganisms on the Red Planet.
