New Data Indicates Mars Crater Used To Be A Large Lake
- 9 years ago
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has made a discovery that suggests the Red Planet may have once had water on its surface that endured for long stretches of time.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover has made a discovery that suggests the Red Planet may have once had water on its surface that endured for long stretches of time.
Prior to this it was generally believed by the scientific community that any liquid masses the planet did have were buried deep underground.
Those who subscribed to the less popular theory that lakes and such did once exist topside didn’t imagine that they stayed around for long.
A recent examination of the composition of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile high elevation located in the middle of a Martian crater, indicates otherwise.
Numerous layers of sediment were found that had likely been deposited by surrounding lake beds, rivers or the wind.
Given the extent of the build-up, water would have to have been around for quite a while, probably drying up and appearing again later.
In terms of what that means for the possibility of finding evidence of life, albeit specimens that are no longer living, it’s quite exciting.
Surface water would suggest that the ancient environment of Mars was much heavier and quite a bit warmer, so temperatures may have at one time been more fit for habitation than they are now.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover has made a discovery that suggests the Red Planet may have once had water on its surface that endured for long stretches of time.
Prior to this it was generally believed by the scientific community that any liquid masses the planet did have were buried deep underground.
Those who subscribed to the less popular theory that lakes and such did once exist topside didn’t imagine that they stayed around for long.
A recent examination of the composition of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile high elevation located in the middle of a Martian crater, indicates otherwise.
Numerous layers of sediment were found that had likely been deposited by surrounding lake beds, rivers or the wind.
Given the extent of the build-up, water would have to have been around for quite a while, probably drying up and appearing again later.
In terms of what that means for the possibility of finding evidence of life, albeit specimens that are no longer living, it’s quite exciting.
Surface water would suggest that the ancient environment of Mars was much heavier and quite a bit warmer, so temperatures may have at one time been more fit for habitation than they are now.