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A Habitable Fluvio-Lacustrine Environment at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars
- Grotzinger, JP;
- Sumner, DY;
- Kah, LC;
- Stack, K;
- Gupta, S;
- Edgar, L;
- Rubin, D;
- Lewis, K;
- Schieber, J;
- Mangold, N;
- Milliken, R;
- Conrad, PG;
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- Farmer, J;
- Siebach, K;
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- McLennan, SM;
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- Crisp, J;
- Vasavada, A;
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- Squyres, S;
- Steele, A;
- Stolper, E;
- Summons, R;
- Treiman, A;
- Williams, R;
- Yingst, A;
- Team, MSL Science;
- Kemppinen, Osku;
- Bridges, Nathan;
- Johnson, Jeffrey R;
- Cremers, David;
- Godber, Austin;
- Wadhwa, Meenakshi;
- Wellington, Danika;
- McEwan, Ian;
- Newman, Claire;
- Richardson, Mark;
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- Peret, Laurent;
- King, Penelope;
- Blank, Jennifer;
- Weigle, Gerald;
- Li, Shuai;
- Robertson, Kevin;
- Sun, Vivian;
- Baker, Michael;
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- Farley, Kenneth;
- Miller, Hayden;
- Newcombe, Megan;
- Pilorget, Cedric;
- Brunet, Claude;
- Hipkin, Victoria;
- Léveillé, Richard;
- Marchand, Geneviève;
- Sánchez, Pablo Sobrón;
- Favot, Laurent;
- Cody, George;
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- Gailhanou, Marc;
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- Blázquez, Isaías Carrasco;
- Gómez, Felipe Gómez;
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- Hettrich, Sebastian;
- Malvitte, Alain Lepinette;
- Jiménez, Mercedes Marín;
- Martínez-Frías, Jesús;
- Martín-Soler, Javier;
- Martín-Torres, F Javier;
- Jurado, Antonio Molina;
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- Caro, Guillermo Muñoz;
- López, Sara Navarro;
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- Fuentes, Sara Alejandra Sans;
- Martinez, Eduardo Sebastian;
- Redondo, Josefina Torres;
- Urqui-O’Callaghan, Roser;
- Mier, María-Paz Zorzano;
- Chipera, Steve;
- Lacour, Jean-Luc;
- Mauchien, Patrick;
- Sirven, Jean-Baptiste;
- Manning, Heidi;
- Fairén, Alberto;
- Hayes, Alexander;
- Joseph, Jonathan;
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- Lundberg, Angela;
- Melikechi, Noureddine;
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- Fabre, Cécile;
- Wray, James;
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- Poitrasson, Franck;
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- Gorevan, Stephen;
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- Paulsen, Gale;
- Bish, David;
- Gondet, Brigitte;
- Langevin, Yves;
- Geffroy, Claude;
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- Berger, Gilles;
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- d’Uston, Claude;
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- Schröder, Susanne;
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- Heydari, Ezat;
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- Coscia, David;
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- Robert, François;
- Sautter, Violaine;
- Le Mouélic, Stéphane;
- Nachon, Marion;
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- McCartney, Elaina;
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- Hollingsworth, Jeff;
- Kahre, Melinda;
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- Voytek, Mary;
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- Blaney, Diana;
- Brinza, David;
- Christensen, Lance;
- DeFlores, Lauren;
- Feldman, Jason;
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- Jun, Insoo;
- Keymeulen, Didier;
- Mischna, Michael;
- Morookian, John Michael;
- Pavri, Betina;
- Schoppers, Marcel;
- Sengstacken, Aaron;
- Simmonds, John J;
- Spanovich, Nicole;
- Juarez, Manuel de la Torre;
- Webster, Christopher R;
- Yen, Albert;
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- Cucinotta, Francis;
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- Niles, Paul;
- Rampe, Elizabeth;
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- Fisk, Martin;
- Radziemski, Leon;
- Barraclough, Bruce;
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- Dobrea, Eldar Noe;
- Tokar, Robert;
- Cleghorn, Timothy;
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- Manhès, Gérard;
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- Nikiforov, Sergey;
- Prokhorov, Vasily;
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- Tretyakov, Vladislav;
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- Kuzmin, Ruslan;
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- Schwenzer, Susanne P;
- Lee, Ella Mae;
- Sucharski, Robert;
- Hernández, Miguel Ángel de Pablo;
- Ávalos, Juan José Blanco;
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- Kim, Myung-Hee;
- Malespin, Charles;
- Plante, Ianik;
- Muller, Jan-Peter;
- Navarro-González, Rafael;
- Ewing, Ryan;
- Boynton, William;
- Downs, Robert;
- Fitzgibbon, Mike;
- Harshman, Karl;
- Morrison, Shaunna;
- Kortmann, Onno;
- Williams, Amy;
- Lugmair, Günter;
- Wilson, Michael A;
- Jakosky, Bruce;
- Balic-Zunic, Tonci;
- Frydenvang, Jens;
- Jensen, Jaqueline Kløvgaard;
- Kinch, Kjartan;
- Koefoed, Asmus;
- Madsen, Morten Bo;
- Stipp, Susan Louise Svane;
- Boyd, Nick;
- Campbell, John L;
- Perrett, Glynis;
- Pradler, Irina;
- VanBommel, Scott;
- Jacob, Samantha;
- Owen, Tobias;
- Savijärvi, Hannu;
- Boehm, Eckart;
- Böttcher, Stephan;
- Burmeister, Sönke;
- Guo, Jingnan;
- Köhler, Jan;
- García, César Martín;
- Mueller-Mellin, Reinhold;
- Wimmer-Schweingruber, Robert;
- Bridges, John C;
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- Benna, Mehdi;
- Franz, Heather;
- Bower, Hannah;
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- Atreya, Sushil;
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- Spray, John;
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- Ollila, Ann;
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- Vasconcelos, Paulo;
- Bentz, Jennifer;
- Nealson, Kenneth;
- Popa, Radu;
- Moersch, Jeffrey;
- Tate, Christopher;
- Day, Mackenzie;
- Francis, Raymond;
- McCullough, Emily;
- Cloutis, Ed;
- ten Kate, Inge Loes;
- Scholes, Daniel;
- Slavney, Susan;
- Stein, Thomas;
- Ward, Jennifer;
- Berger, Jeffrey;
- Moores, John E
- et al.
Published Web Location
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/science.1242777?ijkey=x0GtpH9SqtVjA&keytype=ref&siteid=sciNo data is associated with this publication.
Abstract
The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus were measured directly as key biogenic elements; by inference, phosphorus is assumed to have been available. The environment probably had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the post-Noachian history of Mars.
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