Why NASA Is Psyched About These Weird Martian Mud Patterns

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

While rumbling over Mount Sharp on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover found a strange crackled terrain.

These distinct patterns in dry mud, found over 100 million miles away in space, are a thrilling discovery for geologists. The cracks form a lattice of hexagons, signaling that the land has gone through intermittent spells of wetness and dryness. Many scientists credit these environmental shifts with prompting the chemical reactions needed to create microorganisms on Earth.

Of course, scientists have already found ample evidence that Mars could have supported life long ago. But these new geological findings are something quite different, experts say. They reveal the environmental conditions that could have allowed life to emerge on the Red Planet in the first place.

And to think this major breakthrough was all made possible by looking between the cracks - literally.

"This is the first tangible evidence we've seen that the ancient climate of Mars had such regular, Earth-like wet-dry cycles," said William Rapin of France's Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie in a statement. "But even more important is that wet-dry cycles are helpful - maybe even required - for the molecular evolution that could lead to life."

A team of researchers including lead author Rapin has published a paper in Nature describing how this peculiar mesh of cracks offers the first evidence of wet-dry cycles occurring on ancient Mars.

[...] "It's pretty lucky of us to have a planet like Mars nearby that still holds a memory of the natural processes which may have led to life," Rapin said.

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