PA ArchiveBack in 2008 ,the Mars Rover made an interesting discovery on the surface of the Red Planet, and experts now believe that it discovered signs of ancient alien life.
The Spirit Rover, as NASA call it, was roaming around inside the Gusev crater when it came across and photographed some mineral deposits, opaline silica to be precise.
The shape of the silica has caused much of the intrigue surrounding Spirit’s discovery. They have cauliflower like protrusions sprouting out of the dirt.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, scientists researching similar formations in a Chilean desert believe the silica may prove life beyond planet earth.
NASA/JPL-CaltechSteven Ruff and Jack Farmer, both of the University of Arizona, have been studying finds in Chile’s Atacama Desert, a landscape the Smithsonian claims is the driest non-polar place on Earth and comparable to the surface of Mars.
Other cauliflower-like discoveries in Yellowstone National Park, and Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand were found to have fossilised imprints of microbial life, and if those in Chile can be proven to have them also, it would indicate that the Martian cauliflowers may too.
Kurt Konhauser of the University of Alberta, and editor-in-chief of the journal Geobiology, agrees that earthly comparisons may pave the way to a major breakthrough in the search for alien life.
He said to the Smithsonian:
I don’t think there is any way around using modern Earth analogs to test where Martian microbes may be found.
