A Habitable Fluvio-Lacustrine Environment at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Grotzinger, J. P., Sumner, D. Y., Kah, L. C., Stack, K., Gupta, S., Edgar, L., Rubin, D., Lewis, K., Schieber, J., Mangold, N., Milliken, R., Conrad, P. G., Desmarais, D., Farmer, J., Siebach, K., Calef, F., Hurowitz, J., McLennan, S. M., Ming, D., Vaniman, D., Crisp, J., Vasavada, A., Edgett, K. S., Malin, M., Blake, D., Gellert, R., Mahaffy, P., Wiens, R. C., Maurice, S., Grant, J. A., Wilson, Shelby, Anderson, R. C., Beegle, L., Arvidson, R., Hallet, B., Sletten, R. S., Rice, M., Bell, J., Griffes, J., Ehlmann, B., Anderson, R. B., Bristow, T. F., Dietrich, W. E., Dromart, G., Eigenbrode, J., Fraeman, A., Hardgrove, C., Herkenhoff, K., Jandura, L., Kocurek, G.
• Other Authors: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences Pasadena, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Department of Earth and Planetary Science UC Berkeley (EPS), University of California Berkeley, University of California-University of California, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Department of Earth Science and Technology Imperial College London, Imperial College London, ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE), Arizona State University Tempe (ASU), US Geological Survey Santa Cruz, United States Geological Survey Reston (USGS), Princeton University, Department of Geological Sciences Bloomington, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University System-Indiana University System, Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique UMR 6112 (LPG), Université d'Angers (UA)-Université de Nantes - UFR des Sciences et des Techniques (UN UFR ST), Université de Nantes (UN)-Université de Nantes (UN)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Geological Sciences Providence, Brown University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA-California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Department of Geosciences Stony Brook, Stony Brook University SUNY (SBU), State University of New York (SUNY)-State University of New York (SUNY), State University of New York (SUNY), NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), NASA, Planetary Science Institute Tucson (PSI), Department of Physics Guelph, University of Guelph, Space Remote Sensing Group (ISR-2), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Center for Earth and Planetary Studies Washington (CEPS), Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution-Smithsonian Institution, Department of Earth and Space Sciences Seattle, University of Washington Seattle, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement Lyon (LGL-TPE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon), Department of Geological Sciences Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences (JSG)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Yellowknife; Yellowknife Bay
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01293840; https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1242777

International audience The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus were measured directly as key biogenic elements; by inference, phosphorus is assumed to have been available. The environment probably had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the post-Noachian history of Mars.