Sentence/reporter Takasugi
NASA’s Perseverance rover has returned images of Mars’ Jezero crater, revealing that the red planet may once have had a rushing river.
Rivers found on Mars, part of a network of waterways in Jezero Crater, are deeper and faster than scientists have found evidence in the past, NASA said.
Understanding the Martian water environment could help scientists look for signs of ancient microbial life that may be preserved in Martian rocks, as Perseverance has been exploring the area since it landed in Jezero Crater more than two years ago.
Perseverance is exploring the top of an 820-foot (about 250-meter) high, fan-shaped sedimentary stack, whose curved layer features indicate that flowing water once existed here. But are these currents flowing in shallower streams, or in more powerful rivers?
Stitching together hundreds of images from Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera revealed important clues: coarse sediment grains and pebbles. Libby Ives, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, “These show that there was a high-energy river flowing and carrying a lot of debris. The stronger the current, the easier it is to move larger debris. “
Jezero Crater is a series of curved bands of layered rock known as a Curvilinear unit. Scientists are convinced that these curved bands of rock formations were formed by powerful currents of water. But Perseverance’s latest image of a curved unit nicknamed “Skrinkle Haven” has scientists debating whether it’s a meandering or braided river.
From the surface, these curved rock formations appear to line up and may be remnants of changes in the banks of the river over time or sandbars that formed in the river. These rock formations may have been higher before. Scientists suspect that the rock formations have weathered over hundreds of millions of years to form the current scale.
Perseverance also captured images of what is known as Pinestand, about a quarter of a mile (about 0.4 kilometers) from Skrinker Harbour. Standing Pine, an isolated hill with layers of sediment that curve skyward, some as high as 66 feet (about 20 meters), may also have been formed by the impact of a powerful river, and scientists are investigating other possible causes.
“It’s exciting that we’ve entered a new phase of exploring the history of Jezero Crater,” said Perseverance deputy program scientist Katie Stack Morgan. “And this is the first time we’ve We see this type of surface environment on Mars. We are thinking about rivers on a different scale than before.”◇
