Written by Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – NASA’s Perseverance rover says it has collected data supporting the existence of ancient lake sediments deposited by water that once filled a giant Mars basin called Hereso Crater. , the findings of a study published Friday revealed.
Ground-penetrating radar observations carried out by the robotic spacecraft corroborate previous orbital images and other data, leading scientists to believe that parts of Mars were once covered in water and harbored microbial life. Theorized that it may have been.
The study, led by a team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Oslo, was published in the journal Science Advances.
The six-wheeled rover, about the size of a car, will travel across the surface of Mars over several months in 2022 from a crater floor to an adjacent area with a braided, deposit-like formation similar to the one in orbit. Based on underground scans taken at the time. , river deltas on Earth.
Sound from the spacecraft’s RIMFAX radar instrument allows scientists to peer underground and obtain cross-sections of rock formations 65 feet (20 meters) deep, “like looking through a road cut.” ” said lead author David Page, a planetary scientist at UCLA. paper.
These layers provide unmistakable evidence that water-borne soil sediments were deposited in Hereso Crater and its delta from water-fed rivers, similar to lakes on Earth. The discovery confirms what previous research has long suggested: Mars, cold, dry and lifeless, was once warm, wet and possibly habitable.
Scientists are looking forward to a detailed examination of the Hereso deposits, which are thought to have formed around 3 billion years ago, with samples collected by Perseverance for future transport to Earth.
On the other hand, the latest research is welcome, as it demonstrates that scientists were, after all, in the right place on Earth to study geobiological Mars.
Remote analysis of initial core samples drilled at four sites near where Perseverance landed in February 2021 reveals rocks that are volcanic in nature, rather than sediments as expected. , which surprised researchers.
The two studies are not contradictory. The volcanic rocks also showed signs of alteration due to exposure to water, and scientists who announced their findings in August 2022 reasoned at the time that the deposits may have been eroded.
Indeed, RIMFAX radar measurements reported Friday showed signs of erosion before and after the formation of sedimentary layers at the crater’s western edge, evidence of a complex geological history there, Page said. .
“What we landed on was volcanic rock,” Page said. “The real news here is that we’re moving into the delta and we’re starting to see evidence of lake sediments. That’s one of the main reasons we came to this location. So, in that respect, this is a happy story.”
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Will Dunham and Kim Coghill)