Scientists believe the sediments around the lake eroded from large mounds formed with the help of microbes.
As NASA’s Perserverance rover explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on a distant planet are using data collected on a mission much closer to home at a lake. in southwestern Turkey.
NASA says Salda’s minerals and rock deposits are the closest match to Earth to those around the Jezero Crater where the spacecraft landed and is believed to have once been flooded by water.
Information gathered from Lake Salda may help scientists find fossil traces of microbial life preserved in sediment thought to have been deposited around the delta and lake. long gone.
“Salda … will be a powerful analog in which we can learn and question,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science. Reuters.
Professor Latif Kurt of Ankara University and Umit Turan of the Turkish Ministry of Environment will study the shores of Lake Salda in the Burdur region of Turkey, 1 March 2021. | Image credit: REUTERS
A team of American and Turkish planetary scientists conducted research in 2019 on the shores of the lake, known as the Turkish Maldives because of its azure water and white shores.
Scientists believe that the sediments around the lake have eroded from large mounds formed with the help of microbes and are called microbialites.
The team behind the Perseverance rover, the most advanced astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, is to find out if there are microbialites in Jezero Crater.
They also compare Salda beach sediments with carbonate minerals – formed from carbon dioxide and water, a key ingredient for life – found on the edges of Jezero Crater.
“When we find something at Perseverance we can go back and look at Lake Salda to take a closer look at the two processes, (looking at) things that are similar but just as important as differences. it’s really between Sustainability and Lake Salda, ”said Zurbuchen. “So we are very happy to have that lake, just because I think it will be with us for a long time”.
Samples of rock drilled from Martian soil are to be stored on the surface for retrieval and delivery to Earth by two future robotic missions, as early as 2031.
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