Earth is teeming with life through the bodies of water that are lakes. Records of past climates are contained in lakes. Evidence for ancient life and climate on the red planet can be found in the ancient lakes that existed billions of years ago. The University of Hong Kong's Department of Earth Sciences' Dr. Joseph MICHALSKI proposed that the number of ancient Martian lakes may have been underestimated.
The results of a global analysis of ancient Martian lakes have been published. Most of the lakes we know about are larger than 100 km2. 70% of the lakes are smaller than this size on the planet. Many small lakes probably existed on Mars, even though it's hard to identify them by satellite. At least 70% of the lakes on Mars have not been found. Climate change is studied by scientists who monitor small lakes on Earth. Critical information about past climates could be contained in the missing small lakes.
According to a recent paper, most known Martian lakes are between 3,500 and 4,000 million years old, but each of the lakes may have lasted only a short time. It's believed that ancient Mars was mostly cold and dry, but warmed intermittently. "Because of the lower gravity on Mars and the pervasive, fine-grained soil, lakes on Mars would have been very murky and might not have allowed light to penetrate very deep, which could present a challenge to photosynthetic life, if it existed."
Light for photosynthesis is one of the sources of energy and water found in lakes. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently on Mars and it is one of the top targets for Astrobiological Exploration. There are not all lakes created equal. Some of the lakes on Mars were large, deep, long-lived and had a wide range of environments that could have been favorable to the creation of simple life. It might be a good idea to target large lakes for future exploration.
Earth can be used as an analogue to other planets. We can design tools for detecting life in other places right here at home. Most of the tools are used to detect the remains of the life on the planet.
The first landers to land on Mars were from China. The plains of Utopia Planitia are currently being explored by the man. A sample return mission is likely to happen at the end of this decade, which could target one of the interesting lake deposits.
More information: Joseph R. Michalski et al, Geological diversity and microbiological potential of lakes on Mars, Nature Astronomy (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01743-7 Journal information: Nature Astronomy
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