Ancient volcanic ash on Mars may provide new clues in the search for extraterrestrial life

Debris from ancient volcanic eruptions on Mars could provide new clues in the search for alien life, a new study suggests.

The newly discovered rock type was found at the landing site of a future Mars mission set to launch in 2028.

In a study published last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, researchers studied the rocks using data from orbiting satellites and concluded that they were likely dropped from the air, potentially as volcanic ash, billions of years ago.

However, no volcano has been discovered in the country to date, he writes yahoonews.

"There are no known volcanoes at this site, which means the debris probably came from hundreds or perhaps even thousands of kilometers away," said study author Emma Harris, a doctoral student researching the geological history of Mars at the History Museum. Natural in London.

"It likely came from a really explosive volcano that spewed ash high into the atmosphere and traveled this great distance before settling on this site," she added.

However, little is known about how the rocks were actually formed, researchers say.

To learn more, the study authors mapped a 50,000 square kilometer region using data from the Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA satellite that has been searching for evidence of water on Mars since 2006.

But the team hopes to learn a lot more about the site, known as Oxia Planum, once the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission arrives in 2028.

Otherwise, the Rosalind Franklin rover's mission has been greatly delayed, in part because of the war in Ukraine.

The European Space Agency (ESA) cut ties with former partner Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, after Russia launched its aggression in Ukraine in 2022.

This separation caused the mission to miss its launch in 2023.

While in May 2024, NASA joined forces with ESA to complete the mission. /Telegraph/