Perseverance, a rover operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has obtained data that confirms the existence of ancient lake sediments that were created by water that previously filled a massive basin on Mars known as Jerezo Crater. The findings of this study were published on Friday.
Previous orbital pictures and other data have led scientists to speculate that parts of Mars were once covered in water and may have hosted microbial life. The findings from ground-penetrating radar observations that were carried out by the robotic rover provide evidence that supports this hypothesis.
The findings was published in the journal Science Advances, which opens a new tab. The research was headed by researchers from the University of Oslo and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
It was based on subsurface scans that were acquired by the car-sized, six-wheeled rover over the course of many months in 2022 when it traversed the surface of Mars from the floor of the crater onto a nearby area of braided, sedimentary-like landforms that resembled, from orbit, the river deltas that may be found on Earth.
Using soundings from the RIMFAX radar instrument on the rover, scientists were able to see beneath and obtain a cross-sectional view of rock layers that were 65 feet (20 meters) thick. This was “almost like looking at a road cut,” said David Paige, a planetary scientist at UCLA and the first author of the research.
In the same way that sediments are found in lakes on Earth, these strata give unambiguous proof that soil sediments were carried by water and deposited at Jerezo Crater and its delta from a river that nourished it. The discoveries provided further evidence to support the hypothesis that Mars, which is currently characterized as a lifeless, arid, and frigid planet, was previously warm, wet, and possibly livable.
In the samples that will be collected by Perseverance and transported to Earth in the future, scientists are looking forward to conducting an in-depth analysis of the sediments that were found on Jerezo, which are believed to have originated approximately three billion years ago.
In the meantime, the most recent study is a significant validation that the geo-biological Mars attempt that scientists have been working on was, in fact, carried out at the appropriate location on the planet.
Researchers were taken aback when they discovered that the rock revealed by the remote study of early core samples drilled by the Perseverance in four locations near to where it landed in February 2021 was volcanic in nature, contrary to what they had anticipated, which was that the rock would be sedimentary.
There are no inconsistencies between the two investigations. The scientists who published their findings in August 2022 reasoned that sedimentary deposits may have been washed away because even the volcanic rocks showed signs of modification as a result of being exposed to water.
In point of fact, the RIMFAX radar readings that were reported on Friday discovered traces of erosion both before and after the creation of sedimentary strata that were located at the western side of the crater. This is proof of a complex geological history that occurred there, according to Paige.
“There were volcanic rocks that we the landed on,” according to Paige. “The real news here is that we have now driven onto the delta, and now we are seeing evidence of these lake sediments, which is one of the primary reasons that we came to this location,” the speaker said. Regarding that particular aspect, that is a happy story.
