Energy Finance

Mars could have supported prmitive forms of life some 4 billion years ago, when much of the planet’s surface was like a warm, soppy carpet, say an international team of three dozen scientists.  

The scientists’ findings, which appear in today’s edition of the British journal, Nature, are based on mineralogy data collected by the Reconnaissance Orbiter, a U.S. spacecraft that has circled the red planet since 2006.

The Reconnaissance Orbiter found aqueous minerals bonded to iron, magnesium and aluminum on the sides of canyon walls and rocky soils, which had come to the surface after impacts of meteors and comets. The data suggests the planet was soaked in water for several miles below the surface.

“It was like a saturated crust, that is what created the mineralogy,” says John Mustard, a Brown University planetary geologist who led the study.

In late May, NASA’s Phoenix lander began searching for carbon-based compounds, the chemical building blocks for life that could be lodged in the icy soil.

Hmmmm. Warm atmosphere, carbon compounds, primitive forms of life falling to the bottom of deep water? E&Ps may want to hotfoot it to their favorite private capital providers before Chesapeake Energy Corp. drives Mars lease prices to $30,000 per acre.

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