Glass on Mars could contain evidence of ancient life
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028940
Washington Post : Impact craters on Mars have been found to contain deposits of glass, formed in the extreme heat created when a smaller body crashed into the planet’s surface. Although such glass had previously been found on Earth, it had not been detected on Mars until now because its reflected spectrum is so dim. To look for the glass’s signature reflectiveness, researchers created Mars glass in the laboratory, determined its spectrum, and then wrote an algorithm to detect similar signals in data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Finding glass on Mars is important because similar glass on Earth has preserved evidence of ancient life in the form of organic molecules and plant matter trapped inside.
