NASA discovers evidence of massive, rippling rivers on Mars; look at the pictures

presence of water in Mars It is nothing new for scientists. Even then, the evidence the researchers found indicated that there were lakes or streams on the planet. However, new photos have been revealed by US space agency (NASA) It’s leading scientists to rethink the idea of ​​watery environments on Mars, because it points to the possibility of a huge, choppy river.

Records were previously obtained Rover Perseverance From NASA, which has been on a mission since 2020 to explore the geology and past climate of Mars. Perseverance explores the top of a 250-meter-high fan-shaped mound of sedimentary rock that features curved layers that suggest running water. The images, posted May 11, show grains of coarse sediment and rock.

“This indicates a high-energy river carrying a lot of debris. The stronger the water flow, the easier it can be,” said Libby Ives, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who manages the Perseverance rover, in a statement. On moving larger pieces of material.space agency.

According to NASA, getting a better understanding of the water environments on Mars will help scientists search for signs of ancient microbial life that may have been preserved in the planet’s rocks.

The image released by NASA is a mosaic of 203 individual images stitched together after they were sent back from Mars. This way of displaying natural colors is roughly how the scene would look to a normal person if they were on Mars.

Scientists have dubbed the site explored by the Perseverance rover the “Skrinkle Sanctuary.” According to NASA, scientists are sure that these curved, logged layers were formed by intensely flowing water, but now the question is to understand what kind of river it would be. It can be a river like a snake running through the landscape, like the Mississippi River, or a braided river that forms small islands, like the Nebraska Platte.

This is because, when seen from the ground, these layers give clues that they could be the remains of river banks that have changed over time, or the remains of sandbanks that formed in the river. The researchers’ speculation is that layers may have been much higher in the past. They suspect that after these mounds of sediment were transformed into rock, they were blown away by winds over eons and carved to their present size.