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Data collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover has confirmed the existence of ancient lake sediments deposited by water that once filled a giant basin on Mars called Jerezo Crater, according to a study published Friday.
The findings from ground-penetrating radar observations made by the robotic rover corroborate previous orbital images and other data leading scientists to theorize that parts of Mars were once covered in water and may have supported microbial life.
The research, led by teams from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Oslo, was published in the journal Science Advances.
It was based on subsurface scans taken by the six-wheeled, car-sized rover as it zoomed across the Martian surface from the crater floor to an adjacent expanse of braided, sedimentary-looking features that resemble, from orbit, to the deltas of the rivers found. on earth.
Surveys from the rover’s RIMFAX radar instrument allow scientists to look underground for a cross-sectional view of rock layers 65 feet (20 meters) deep, “almost like looking at a road cut,” said the planetary scientist at UCLA David Paige, the first author. of the paper.
These layers provide unequivocal evidence that water-borne soil sediments were deposited in the Jerezo crater and its delta from a river that fed it, just as occurs in lakes on Earth. The findings reinforced what previous studies have long suggested: that cold, arid and lifeless Mars was once warm, wet and perhaps habitable.
Scientists hope for a closer examination of the Jerezo sediments, which are believed to have formed about 3 billion years ago, in samples collected by Perseverance for future transport to Earth.
Meanwhile, the latest study is welcome validation that scientists undertook their Mars geobiological effort in the right place on the planet after all.
Remote analysis of the first core samples drilled by Perseverance at four sites near where it landed in February 2021 surprised researchers by revealing rock that was volcanic in nature, rather than sedimentary as expected.
The two studies are not contradictory. Even the volcanic rocks showed signs of alteration from exposure to water, and the scientists who published those findings in August 2022 then reasoned that the sedimentary deposits could have eroded.
In fact, RIMFAX radar readings reported Friday found signs of erosion before and after the formation of sedimentary layers identified on the crater’s western rim, evidence of a complex geological history there, Paige said.
“There were volcanic rocks that we landed on,” Paige said. “The real news here is that we’ve now driven into the delta and we’re now seeing evidence of these lake sediments, which is one of the main reasons we came to this place. So, in that sense, it’s a happy story.” .