Water on early Mars may have been habitable for microbes
Surface water on early Mars may have been habitable for microbial life, suggests new research which found that the Red Planet”s water was mineral-rich and salty.
Salinity (how much salt was present), pH (a measure of how acidic the water was), and redox state (roughly a measure of the abundance of gases such as hydrogen or oxygen) are fundamental properties of natural waters.
For the study, Yasuhito Sekine from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan and other members in the research team reconstructed water chemistry at Gale Crater on Mars.
