Debarati Das is a National Geographic Explorer and a graduate student at McGill University. She studies the geochemistry and habitability of Mars as a member of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory in collaboration with planetary scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the French National Center for Space Studies. In this video, she talks about her expedition to Death Valley where she and her collaborator Dr. Patrick Gasda went in search for Mars analogue samples.
I’m Debarati Das and I study the chemistry of rocks on Mars as a member of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory team. I use the data collected by the Martian rover Curiosity and analyze them to understand the composition of the targeted rocks.
Recently, the element boron on Mars was found in mineralized veins within the Martian rocks in Gale crater. This is exciting because boron is a very water-soluble element and can act as a proxy for surface and subsurface water activity on Mars. Looking for water on another planet is a great way to learn about the planet’s habitability and about the possibility of finding signs of alien life. On Earth, boron is known to prolong the stability of ribonucleic acid which is an important molecule for early life. So, finding boron in veins that are associated with water activity, sandwiched between rocks, and are protected from harmful surface UV radiation, has interesting implications from a perspective of possibility of life in hidden pockets on Mars. As boron travels with the water and is left behind when the water dries up, it can even give us clues about the elusive life-story of water on Mars. With our fast-paced strides toward space exploration, it is becoming increasingly vital to understand processes on our own Earth, the most accessible planet for scientific observations. Terrestrial analogues can provide a strong foundation for the understanding of chemical and physical processes that can shed light on the evolution of our neighboring planets. Through my research, I will try to understand the behavior of the element boron in veins of Mars using analogue samples collected from Death Valley in Southern California. Stay tuned to find out more about how we find a portal to Mars right here on Earth!
