An enormous basin in the southern hemisphere of Mars might be the best place to search for signs of past and present Red Planet life, a new study suggests.
The Argyre basin contains a wealth of ingredients thought necessary for the evolution of life, and should be a prime target for a series of future Mars missions, study team members said.
"Argyre displays a collection of landscape features that are promising from an astrobiological point of view, including hydrothermal deposits, pingos [mounds of dirt-covered ice fed by water] or ancient glacier deposits," lead author Alberto Fairén, a visiting scientist at Cornell University in New York state and a researcher at Spain's Center of Astrobiology, told Space.com by email. [The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)]
"This large collection of special features all together in the same setting, accessible by a single mission, is what makes Argyre unique," he said.
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