NASA: Curiosity Reveals Mars Has More Oxygen In the Past, Red Planet Similar to Earth

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered high levels of manganese oxides in Martian rocks that lead scientists to outstanding conclusions -- ancient Mars is more Earth-like than what we thought.

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, by using Curiosity's laser-firing tool called Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), researchers were able to detect manganese oxides in the mineral veins of the Martian rocks. The study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters said that Curiosity estimated that the presence of the said mineral have existed long ago, which gives scientists a clearer picture of what ancient Mars could have been like.

"The only ways on Earth that we know how to make these manganese materials involve atmospheric oxygen or microbes. Now we're seeing manganese oxides on Mars, and we're wondering how the heck these could have formed?" said Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of the study.

Lanza further explained that the high level of manganese oxide deposits could only exist in Mars if the planet once had a big source of water and strong oxidizing conditions. "These high manganese materials can't form without lots of liquid water and strongly oxidizing conditions. Here on Earth, we had lots of water but no widespread deposits of manganese oxides until after the oxygen levels in our atmosphere rose," she said.

The study notes that high level of manganese oxides in Earth's history marks a major change in the atmosphere's condition. If this also happened in Mars, it means that the Red Planet could have looked entirely different than its present form. The manganese oxides could have formed on Mars from water breaking down due to the planet's loss of its magnetic field.

"It's hard to confirm whether this scenario for Martian atmospheric oxygen actually occurr. But it's important to note that this idea represents a departure in our understanding for how planetary atmospheres might become oxygenated," Lanza said.