Ancient volcanic debris on Mars could be clue for alien life

Dark rocks on Mars, potentially left over from ancient volcanic eruptions on the Red Planet, could lead to new clues in the search of alien life, a new study suggests.

The debris was found littered all over a landing site of a future Mars rover mission set to launch in 2028.

Researchers in a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets studied the rocks using data from orbiting satellites and arrived at a conclusion that they probably resulted from volcanic ash billions of years ago.

The only drawback of this conclusion is that no volcanoes have ever been discovered at the site, as per LiveScience. 

"There are no known volcanoes at this site, which means the debris probably came from hundreds or maybe even thousands of kilometres away," study author Emma Harris said in a statement.

"It likely came from a really explosive volcano which launched ash high into the atmosphere and travelled this huge distance before settling at this site,” she added.

Never-ending mystery

The scientists also believe that these rocks may have protected rocks beneath them that are rich in minerals and the protected rocks potentially hold signs of life at the Earth’s neighbouring planet.

Still, there is little known about the formation of the surface rocks, the researchers added and to learns more about them, they mapped a region of 19,300 square miles (50,000 square kilometres) with the help of data provided from the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite of Nasa that has been scouring the planet for signs of water since 2006.

The dark rocks are now theorised to have once covered the whole site by scientists but are now only found in smaller patches. They believe it is because the ash was preserved in lower elevation areas inside the impact craters, where it went on to mix with groundwater.

"The likely explanation for the location of these rocks is that upwelling of groundwater from within the crust once filled the bottom of these impact craters," Harris said.

"When the ash fell on these patches of water, it made it stickier and more cemented. The rest of the ash which landed on the surrounding rock may have just blown away and never preserved,” the researcher added.