NASA’s Perseverance rover has confirmed that Mars’ Jezero crater was once a lake, fed by a small river around 3.7 billion years ago. The images reveal evidence that the crater endured flash floods that were enough to sweep up large boulders tens of miles upstream and deposit them into the lakebed, where they lie today.
The new analysis, published in the journal Science is based on the images of the outcropping rocks inside the crater on its western side. Satellites previously showed that from above, it resembled river deltas on Earth. Perseverance’s images taken from inside the crater confirm that this outcrop was a river delta.
“If you look at these images, you’re basically staring at this epic desert landscape. It’s the most forlorn place you could ever visit, there’s not a drop of water anywhere, and yet, here we have evidence of a very different past. Something very profound happened in the planet’s history,” said Benjamin Weiss, professor of planetary sciences in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a member of the analysis team.
Scientists hope to uncover more clues to Jezero crater’s climatic evolution. Now that they have confirmed that it was once a lake, they believe its sediments could hold traces of ancient aqueous life.
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Image Credit: NASA