One of humanity’s greatest obsessions is to find another planet where conditions similar to those on Earth occur. Decades of space exploration have left us with many hypotheses and few certainties, although in some places in the Solar System, galaxy, or Universe, there are some clues that make us look closely.
Mars is one of those places, undoubtedly the closest one. NASA and other space agencies have been sending space probes to study the red planet for decades, as well as rovers that land on its surface. So far, the searches have not yielded results, but a recent study by the American space agency reveals the region where they need to investigate to find signs of life as we know it.
We must investigate the layers of ice.
On Mars, there are regions that have ice caps. Scientists from around the world, mainly associated with the NASA, indicate that in these places there could be small melted pools, as they were crossed by sunlight. Therefore, this could have triggered a process of photosynthesis, essential for the development of life as we know it.
“If we are looking for life anywhere in the universe today, the ice exposures on Mars are probably one of the most accessible places we should be looking,” explained Aditya Khuller, the lead author of the study, in a NASA statement, as reported by Infobae.
The striking thing about this new study is that NASA identified new regions on Mars where there are ice layers, different from those found in craters like Jezero, which is located at the northern end of the red planet.
These new ice layer zones are located closer to the Martian tropics, where temperatures are expected to not be as frigid.