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Floods of unimaginable size once swept through the Gale crater on Mars some 4 billion years ago, raising the possibility that life once existed on the red planet.
Researchers from Jackson State University, Cornell University, and the University of Hawaii collaborated with NASA to examine sediment data captured by the Curiosity Rover.
Dubbed a “raging megaflood” by scientists, it was likely caused by an asteroid or comet hitting the planet, warming and releasing the ice stored on the Martian surface.
Water up to 78 feet deep raged through the crater at 32 feet per second, leaving behind gigantic ripples that are telltale structures familiar to scientists on Earth.
On Earth where water is found “there is life,” according to co-author Alberto G. Fairen, and microbial life may have developed on Mars four billion years ago, he said.
Dubbed a “ raging megaflood ” by scientists, it was likely caused by an asteroid or comet hitting the planet, warming and releasing the ice stored on the Martian surface.
This close-up shot of rocks on Mars shows changes in the bed range including rounded coarse sand and pebble fragments that suggest water once flowed through the area
The ripples created by the floods, also known as antidunes, are up to 30 feet tall and spread about 450 feet apart, according to Ezat Heydari, co-author.
As in the case of the Earth, geological features, including the work of water and wind, have been frozen in time on Mars for about four billion years – they carry processes that shaped the surface of both planets in the distant past.
This includes the presence of the gigantic wave-shaped features in the sedimentary layers of the Gale crater, often called “megariples” or antidunes.
In one case that water entered the Gale crater and, when combined with the water flowing down from Mount Sharp into the Gale crater, produced gigantic flash floods.
“We first identified megafloods using detailed sedimentological data observed from the Curiosity rover,” said co-author Alberto G. Fairén.
“The deposits left by the megafloods were not previously identified with the data from the orbiter,” Fairen explained.
The antidunes seen in NASA’s Curiosity data are identical to the features formed by the melting of ice on Earth about two million years ago, Heydari said.
On Mars, the release of ice water supplies likely required a significant impact event that released carbon dioxide, methane and ice in the form of water vapor.
The water vapor and gases combined to produce a short hot and humid period that could have led to the development of life, the researchers say.
“The hot, humid climate persisted even after the flood ended, but its duration cannot be determined by our study,” the team wrote in their paper.
Condensation of the heat generated by the impact likely formed clouds of water vapor that created torrential rains, possibly across the planet.
An earlier study, also using data from Curiosity, revealed evidence of storms filling lakes and rivers with rain on the planet about four billion years ago.
Curiosity sent images and data for the research team to examine, including the bottom image showing the direction of the water flow, along the yellow dotted line.
In one case that water entered the Gale Crater and, when combined with the water flowing down from Mount Sharp into the Gale Crater, produced gigantic flash floods.
This left deposits of gravel ridges surrounding the crater that can be seen on the Red Planet today and helped the team calculate the size of the mega-flood.
The science team of the Curiosity rover has already established that Gale Crater once had persistent lakes and streams in the ancient past.
These long-lived bodies of water are good indicators that the crater, as well as Mount Sharp within it, were capable of supporting microbial life.
Graph showing the terrain studied by Curiosity and where layers and antidunes were discovered, indicating areas of ripples and waves from a large flood
These are images of the Gale Crater showing various topographical features including mountains and ripples produced by activity on the planet over billions of years.
“Early Mars was an extremely active planet from a geologic point of view,” Fairén said. “The planet had the necessary conditions to support the presence of liquid water on the surface and on the Earth, where there is water, there is life.
“So the first Mars was a habitable planet,” he said. ‘Was it inhabited? This is a question that the next Perseverance rover … will help answer.
Perseverance, launched from Cape Canaveral on July 30, is expected to reach Mars on February 18, 2021.
The results were published in Scientific Reports.
NASA MARS 2020: THE MISSION WILL SEE THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER AND THE INGENUITY SEARH FOR LIFE HELICOPTER
NASA’s mission to Mars 2020 will look for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet in an effort to help scientists better understand how life on Earth has evolved.
Called Perseverance, the car-sized main rover will explore an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater, which was once filled by a 1,600-foot deep lake.
The region is believed to have hosted microbial life 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago, and the rover will examine soil samples for evidence of life.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover (artist impression) will look for signs of ancient life on Mars in an attempt to help scientists better understand how life on our planet has evolved
The $ 2.5 billion (£ 1.95 billion) Mars 2020 spaceship was launched on 30 July with the rover and helicopter inside and will land on 18 February 2021.
Perseverance is designed to land inside the crater and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further analysis.
A second mission will fly to the planet and return the samples, perhaps by the end of the 1920s in collaboration with the European Space Agency.
This concept art shows the 2020 Mars rover landing on the red planet via NASA’s “sky crane” system.
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