#Washington: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had found new evidence which shows that there was presence of water in Mars. It also indicates that Mars most like #Earth in the #Solar #System was suitable for microbial life.
#Rover #Curiosity of NASA had collected some pictures and other data show that rivers once flowed into a lake or lakes at the bottom of Gale Crate, an enormous dimple carved out by an incoming space rock.
NASA said its interpretation of Curiosity’s finds in Gale Crater suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many locations on the Red Planet.
Mars’s Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years, said American space agency.
The Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena #Ashwin #Vasavada said, “If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars.”
He also said, “A more radical explanation is that Mars’ ancient, thicker atmosphere raised temperatures above freezing globally, but so far we don’t know how the atmosphere did that.”
Mount Sharp stands about three miles (5 kilometres) tall, its lower flanks exposing hundreds of rock layers.
NASA said in a statement why this layered mountain sits in a crater has been a challenging question for researchers.
Curiosity Project Scientist of the #California Institute of #Technology in #Pasadena, #California #John #Grotzinger said, “We are making headway in solving the mystery of Mount Sharp.”
“Where there’s now a mountain, there may have once been a series of lakes.”
Rivers carried sand and silt to the lake, depositing the sediments at the mouth of the river to form deltas similar to those found at river mouths on Earth.
This cycle occurred over and over again.
Grotzinger said, “The great thing about a lake that occurs repeatedly, over and over, is that each time it comes back it is another experiment to tell you how the environment works.”
Bureau Report
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