In a story by staffer Kathy Fay of The Space Reporter today, November 12, 2016, it was revealed that scientists have discovered funnel-shaped features on Mars that may, indeed, hold the ingredients needed for life to exist there.
According to EurekAlert, deep depressions on the surface of Mars were most likely created by volcanic activity beneath a glacier. Consequently, that could create a warm, wet and chemical-rich environment that could lead to microbial life.
Author Joseph Levy, who works at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, said the site could host some of the key ingredients for habitability. The largest depression is located within a crater on the edge of the Hellas basin on Mars, and it is one of a few spotted on the world's surface.
The term being given to these depressions is "ice cauldrons," which are similarly found on the earth in icy, volcanic areas like Iceland and Greenland. Levy said they are concentrically fractured so they appear like bulls-eyes.
Further analysis by researchers has reportedly shown that the formations were likely made by subsurface activity. The study was published by Icarus, the International Jounral of Solar Systems Studies.
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