Opals Found On Mars

Mars in the daytime

NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered a large number of opals on Mars that could help solve the question of whether life ever existed on the Red Planet? Opals are only found where water once was. The discovery made them wonder could the Red Planet provide water for any future human missions to the Martian surface. Considered a gemstone, opals display shimmering colors that usually look like rainbows.

Considered a gemstone, opals display shimmering colors that usually look like rainbows. These gems are formed when silicon oxides dissolve in a moist environment and then harden in the cracks between rocks. This process transforms opals into miniature oases that can contain up to 20% water.

Martian opals have previously been spotted from afar by NASA’s orbiter, and have been identified in Martian meteorites that have fallen to Earth. Now, a team led by Travis Gabriel, a research scientist at the US Geological Survey, shows that the Curiosity rover has also encountered light-colored opal deposits on the Martian surface.

Scientists know that Mars was much wetter and warmer about 3.7 billion years ago, but the presence of opal deposits in Gale Crater suggests that the planet may have also experienced short-term flooding during the past few hundred million years. Although it is unlikely that life still survives on the dry Martian surface, these brief floods may have helped microbes survive deeper underground, or preserved microbial remains in opals.

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