Curiosity, the Mars Rover, pictures what seems to be evidence of Mar's watery past but researchers can't figure out how it's possible. There was a conjecture that ancient Mars was covered in water, similar to seas on Earth.
According to CBCNews, that theory has a new compelling evidence when Mars Rover Curiosity extracted a rock sample from the Gale Crater. This rock sample was composed of a mineral known as tridymite.
Tridymites are naturally formed when the lava that erupts from a volcano gets mixed with loads of water in Earth's oceans. However, NASA scientists were shocked since there are no known conditions on Mars to be able to produce such a mineral.
A NASA scientist explained that the kind of volcanoes that are known to produce tridymites are called silicic volcanoes. While the volcanoes found on Mars are basaltic volcanoes, which are incapable of producing the the discovered mineral.
Meanwhile, some researchers believe that Mars was indeed covered in water and had lakes at one point. According to SlashGear, Mars had water in various parts of the planet, but the mysterious part is how it manages to have lakes.
Since Mars current temperature would make any water on the planet freeze up, given if Mars had water present on its surface today. Even more so in the past, because Mars was a lot cooler in the ancient times than it is in the modern day.
Other researchers have theorized that maybe, Mars had a layer of ice on the surface but had a body of liquid water beneath it. Regardless, there's not enough evidence for scientists to be able to come up with a conclusion at this moment.
Maybe the Mars Rover Curiosity might stumble upon something that would strengthen the water theory. If the Mars Rover pictures another mineral that would solidify these claims, then we are one step closer to knowing how the red planet was in the ancient times.
