Overview
- Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets, the study reports that Gale Crater sand dunes turned to rock after interacting with underground water billions of years ago.
- Analysis indicates water likely seeped upward from nearby highlands through cracks in the dunes, leaving aqueous minerals such as gypsum.
- Gypsum and related minerals can trap and preserve organic traces, positioning solidified dunes as high-priority targets for life-detection efforts.
- The work combines Curiosity rover data with field studies in UAE deserts and laboratory experiments, and was led by Dimitra Atri with collaborators including Vignesh Krishnamoorthy, Panče Naumov’s group, James Weston, and colleagues at NYUAD.
- The researchers highlight future subsurface-focused missions, with Europe’s ExoMars and China’s Tianwen-3 currently planned for 2028 as opportunities to test these predictions.