Nasa scientists are studying rocks in the Scottish Highlands to help them understand if there was once life on Mars. The US space agency announced last year that its Perseverance rover had found potential biosignatures, markings on rocks possibly made by ancient microbes. This summer, scientists took samples from a geological feature called the Stoer Formation, external around Clachtoll, in Assynt, in the north-west Highlands.
Nasa said the area's rocks formed in environments comparable to ancient Martian lakes and rivers, but could also hold evidence of microbial life from 1.2 billion years ago. Clachtoll is a small crofting community on the Sutherland coast about 100 miles north of Inverness, and is a popular destination along the North Coast 500 tourist route. Nasa's Goddard Instrument Field Team, which specialises in studying Earth's extreme environments, led the research expedition.
Experts from the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge were among those involved. They took rock samples from cliffs for further analysis. Nasa said: "Though Mars is dry today, the Martian landscape, like our own planet's, is shaped by an ancient history of flowing water.
"Both worlds have layered areas of mudstones and siltstones rich in clay minerals. "Learning how signs of ancient life show up in Earth rocks like these Scottish cliffs can help us understand the story of habitability and the potential for biosignatures to be preserved and detected on Mars." It is not the first time Scotland's ancient geology has been used by scientists to help them understand how life could have existed on Mars. Last year, technology which will be used in the search for evidence of Martian life was tested by a University of St Andrews team at Lower Diabaig, in Torridon.
The rocks in the area are billions of years old and similar to those found on the Red Planet. Eight years ago, a Nasa Mars rover, Curiosity, explored a part of the planet named after Torridon. Martian geological areas and features have been named by Nasa after places on Earth.
Several of the names were taken from Scotland and, as well as Torridon, there is a Siccar Point, Muck, Wick, Sandwick and Holyrood on Mars. Nasa chose the name Torridon due to the Torridonian Supergroup, a geological formation in the north-west Highlands that contains some of the oldest evidence of life of any rocks in the UK. In 2012, Glenelg held a celebration in honour of a location on Mars being named after the small Highland community.
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