The location of the ancient lake could add to the understanding of whether the Red Planet ever hosted life
A snapshot from NASA’s Curiosity rover has revealed compelling evidence of a large body of water in an area of the planet previously thought to be a wasteland, the US space agency says. announce this week.
The rover, which has been exploring the planet for more than a decade, has greatly increased our understanding of the Martian landscape since it touched down on the planet’s surface in 2012.
But a recent discovery in a region of the planet known as the “sulphate-bearing unit” has NASA particularly excited, after they found “Clearest guide yet“One of the signs that there may be an important lake in an area that was previously thought to contain only small drops of water.
“This is the best evidence of water and waves we’ve seen on the entire missionNASA’s Aswin Vasavada said in a statement this week. “We climbed through thousands of feet of lake sediment and we’ve never seen evidence like this – and now we found it where we expected it to dry up. “
It is assumed that if life – microbial or otherwise – ever existed on Mars, evidence of it would likely be discovered near where the water used to be concentrated. Scientists also expect to find clues about how the once watery planet turned into the frozen wasteland it is today.
“Billions of years ago, waves on the surface of a shallow lake stirred up the sediments at the bottom of the lake, which over time created undulating residual tissues in the rockNASA added in its statement on Wednesday.
However, efforts to dig for samples at the foothills of Mount Sharp — a three-mile-high mountain that once contained streams and lakes — have been complicated by the rover’s encounter with hard-to-drill rocks.
“The ancient climate of Mars had a remarkable complexity, much like Earth’sVasavada added.
The discovery of water on Mars was first confirmed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars probe in 2008, with subsequent missions pinpointing a large subglacial lake about a mile below the southern ice cap in 2018.
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