Signs in Martian Soil Point to Habitable Conditions For Life Over a Long Period - ScienceAlert

Through a thorough study of images captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, planetary scientists have identified clay-bearing sediments across the northern Ladon Valles, the southern Ladon basin, and the southwestern highlands around Ladon basin – all part of the extensively cratered Margaritifer Terra area.

While it's not exactly proof of life – we'd need to go digging on Mars for fossils to truly confirm that – it does suggest conditions that might well have supported life.

The researchers think that clays originally formed around the higher ground above the Ladon basin, before being eroded by channels of water and transported downstream into a lake in the Ladon basin and the northern Ladon Valles.

How transitory or otherwise the presence of water has been on Mars is crucial to figuring out whether or not life could have been supported at some point.