NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover has given reason for scientists to cheer with the confirmation that the Red Planet had the ability to store water in lakes over long periods of time. The findings follow recent revelations that suggested the existence of ancient lakes on the Martian landscape, as reported by HNGN.
Adding more to the discovery of existence of water on Mars, the Curiosity rover has concluded that the sediments deposited in the Gale Crater were facilitated by the existence of water. Today, the layers of sediment are the foundation of Mount Sharp, the mountain that stands in the middle of the crater.
"Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a press release.
"Paradoxically, where there is a mountain today there was once a basin, and it was sometimes filled with water," lead author of the report John Grotzinger said. He based his hypothesis on the findings of mudstones that show the presence of long existing lakes, which grew and contracted over millions of years.
The Curiosity Rover reached Mars in 2012 after being launched in 2011 and has since then been surprising scientists with its new discoveries.
"What we thought we knew about water on Mars is constantly being put to the test. It's clear that the Mars of billions of years ago more closely resembled Earth than it does today. Our challenge is to figure out how this more clement Mars was even possible, and what happened to that wetter Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
