What is sulfate? Here’s what to know about this mineral salt, including where it’s found and how it can affect your health.

Scientists may have uncovered a promising new method to detect ancient life on Mars. A recent study suggests that microbial fossils could be preserved in sulfate minerals like gypsum, which are ...

These salts form in the presence of water, so even though Mars is dry today, finding these minerals now indicates that there was once water in the region. And areas of water are places where life ...

Scientists then look for specific biosignatures, such as the presence of carbon, minerals associated with biological activity, such as dolomite or clay, and microscopic fossil structures.

On Earth, sulfate minerals can preserve microscopic fossils of microbes. Finding similar structures on Mars could indicate past life. Yet, to interpret these potential signs accurately, scientists ...

Scientists searching for microbe fossils on Mars have a better idea of what to look for thanks to gypsum that formed when the Mediterranean Ocean dried up over 5 million years ago.

“Sulphate minerals exist with different amounts of water in most regions on Mars and allow us to understand how water moved around the planet, which is key to understanding its past habitability ...

But only evaporation would lead to highly pure siderite forming in the same geologic layer as the sulfate minerals the team identified, gypsum and starkeyite. Atmospheric CO 2 must have dissolved ...