Pictures indicate a high-energy river carries a lot of debris on Mars, helping search for signs of ancient microbial life | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
The presence of water on Mars is nothing new for scientists. Even then, the evidence the researchers found indicated that there were lakes or streams on the planet. However, the new images revealed by the US space agency (NASA) prompted scientists to rethink the idea of aquatic environments on Mars, because they indicate the possibility of a huge and turbulent river.
Records were previously obtained NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been on a mission since 2020 to explore the geology and past climate of Mars. Perseverance explores the top of a 250-meter-high fan-shaped mound of sedimentary rock that features curved layers that suggest running water. The images, posted May 11, show grains of coarse sediment and rock.
Libby Ives, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which operates the probe, said in a statement from the space agency.
According to NASA, getting a better understanding of the watery environments on Mars will help scientists search for signs of ancient microbial life that may be preserved in the planet’s rocks.
The image released by NASA is a mosaic of 203 individual images stitched together after they were sent back from Mars. This way of displaying natural colors is roughly how the scene would look to a normal person if they were on Mars.
Scientists have dubbed the site explored by the Perseverance rover the “Skrinkle Sanctuary.” According to NASA, scientists are sure that these curved, logged layers were formed by intensely flowing water, but now the question is to understand what kind of river it would be. It can be a river like a snake running through the landscape, like the Mississippi River, or a braided river that forms small islands, like the Nebraska Platte.
This is because, when seen from the ground, these layers give signs that they may be the remains of riverbanks that have changed over time, or the remains of sandbanks that formed in the river. The researchers’ speculation is that layers may have been much higher in the past. They suspect that after these mounds of sediment were transformed into rock, they were blown away by winds over eons and carved to their present size.
More about the mission
One of the main goals of the Perseverance mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will determine the planet’s past geology and climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and store Martian rocks and regolith (broken rocks and dust).
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Lunar-to-Mars Exploration Approach, which includes the Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
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