Curiosity rover finds traces of ancient floods on Mars

Previous images of large channels of Mars and giant wave-like features on its surface

indicate that in the past on the planetmajor floods occurred. A team of NASA scientists made these conclusions based on images from the Curiosity rover. In their opinion, these phenomena occurred approximately 4 billion years ago. “We identified floods for the first time using detailed sedimentological data,” said Alberto Faren, co-author of the paper published in the journal Nature. “It was not possible to determine areas of the planet that show signs of flooding from orbit.”

Scientists used pictures taken withMars Hand Lens Image and Mastcam, they observe rocks and minerals in Gale Crater. The researchers discovered sediments that they believe were deposited as a result of giant flash floods that occurred after Mount Sharp and Gale Crater first formed.

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They believe that the floods caused a powerfulimpact of meteorites. This phenomenon led to the release of heat due to the melting of huge amounts of ice on the planet. As a result, carbon dioxide and methane were released, which combined with water vapor for a short time formed a warm and humid climate. This led to heavy rains across the planet.

At this time, the planet had the conditions necessaryto maintain liquid water on the surface - NASA is now testing whether life existed on the planet during this period. Now the task of the Perseverance rover, which will land on the surface of the Red Planet in February 2021, is to test this hypothesis.

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