New research from NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered signs of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, offering a major clue in the search for whether the planet was once capable of supporting life. The discovery, led by Dr. Ben Tutolo, an associate professor at the University of Calgary and member of the Mars Science Laboratory team, was published in Science and marks a significant step forward in understanding Mars’ past climate and habitability.
Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012, analyzing rock layers on Mount Sharp to reconstruct the planet's environmental history. The latest data reveal the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, in sulfate-rich rock layers sampled at three different drilling sites. According to Tutolo, this finding is both surprising and significant.
“The discovery of large carbon deposits in Gale Crater represents a breakthrough in our understanding of Mars' geologic and atmospheric evolution,” said Tutolo. “It helps us piece together how the planet transitioned from a once warmer, wetter world to the cold, dry one we see today.”
Siderite formation points to a once carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere—dense enough to support liquid water on the surface. As Mars’ atmosphere gradually thinned, that carbon dioxide likely began reacting with minerals to form carbonates, effectively locking the greenhouse gas into rock and contributing to the planet's cooling.
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While scientists had long suspected that sedimentary carbonates formed under ancient Martian conditions, such evidence had been limited until now. Curiosity’s detection of these carbonates suggests Mars once had the right conditions for liquid water—and possibly life.
“The data show us that Mars was habitable during this time,” Tutolo explained. “But as CO₂ began to precipitate into minerals like siderite, the planet likely lost its ability to maintain warm conditions, affecting its potential to remain habitable.”
Tutolo added that this discovery raises deeper questions about how much atmospheric CO₂ was sequestered and whether that loss played a key role in Mars' environmental shift. He also noted how these insights connect to climate research on Earth.
His current work focuses on converting human-made CO₂ into stable carbonate minerals to combat climate change. Understanding how this process occurred naturally on Mars, he said, could help refine similar strategies here.
“Studying how Mars lost its habitable environment reminds us just how delicate planetary habitability can be,” he said. “The fact that Earth has remained habitable for billions of years is extraordinary. Something happened to Mars that didn’t happen to Earth—and we’re starting to understand what that was.”
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