NASA’s Curiosity Rover finds lake remains

13 Dec SRK News

Mars might have had long-lasting above-ground lakes rather than only underground ones as previously assumed, shows recent data from the NASA Curiosity Rover.

The fresh information shows that Mars’s three-mile tall Mount Sharp, situated on the planet’s Gale Crater, is made of various layers of sediment.

Scientists at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) say the different layers were most likely deposited by a surrounding lake bed and others resulted from rivers or wind deposits.

The new findings are in contrast with former theories that the red planet’s water supplies were only underground or only appeared on the surface for short amounts of time.They believe that a vast lake in the Gale Crater contributed to the mountain's unusual structure.”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,” Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger said in a statement.

“As Curiosity climbs higher on Mount Sharp, we will have a series of experiments to show patterns in how the atmosphere and the water and the sediments interact.”

In order to maintain liquid water on its surface, Mars would have formerly had to be much warmer and have a heavier atmosphere than it currently maintains.

The presence of liquid water on the planet’s surface would be a significant scientific find as it lends hope of finding signs of past life on Mars.