Microbialites at Gusev Crater, Mars.

GIORGIO BIANCIARDI; VINCENZO RIZZO; FARÍAS, MARÍA EUGENIA; NICOLA CANTASANO

Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach

Science Editors

Año: 2015

AbstractThe Mars Exploration Rover Spirit investigated plains at Gusev crater, where sedimentary rocks are present. TheSpirit rover?s Athena morphological investigation shows microstructures organized in intertwined filaments ofmicrospherules: a texture we have also found on samples of terrestrial stromatolites and other microbialites. Weperformed a quantitative image analysis to compare 45 microbialites samplings with 50 rover?s ones (approximately25,000/20,000 microstructures). Contours were extracted and morphometric indexes obtained: geometric andalgorithmic complexities, entropy, tortuosity, minimum and maximum diameters. Terrestrial and Martian texturesresulted multifractals, while terrestrial abiogenic minerals showed a simple fractal structure. Mean values andconfidence intervals from the Martian images overlapped perfectly with those from terrestrial samples. Theprobability of this occurring by chance was less than 1/28, p