News Planetary Science

A crack at life

By Ron Cowen

- More than 2 years ago

New images of ancient cracks on Mars suggest that liquid may have percolated through underground rock, providing a possible habitat for primitive life.

ROCKY HABITAT? Light-colored areas of fractures in exposed rock at the Martian canyon Candor Chasma suggest the flow of fluid millions of years ago. Univ. of Arizona, JPL/NASA

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which carries the most powerful magnifying camera yet sent to the Red Planet, captured the images in September 2006 as it flew over a Martian canyon called Candor Chasma.