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New research suggests massive floods once swept through an area on Mars. Scientists say the discovery could be a new sign that the planet may once have had the right conditions to support some form of life.
The evidence comes from data collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover, an exploration vehicle. Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 and explored the planet Gale Crater since. Scientists believe the Gale Crater formed when a meteor it hit Mars in its early history, 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago.
Scientists have already collected evidence suggesting that Mars once had a lot of water. In 2015, NASA’s Curiosity team said the rover had collected evidence showing that the Red Planet could have stored water in large lakes billions of years ago.
Last year, European researchers reported that they discovered the first evidence of a huge groundwater system that once existed beneath the surface of Mars. Another study from 2019 suggested that Gale Crater was also once home to a number of large salt lakes.
Scientists have long linked the complex history of water on Mars to whether or not life ever existed on the planet.
The evidence supporting the previous findings is similar to the latest evidence provided by the NASA rover. The data centers on the trainings – made by water e sediment – observed by Curiosity in the Gale Crater.
But the new findings, described in a study that appeared in Nature Scientific Reports, you suggest that huge “megafloods“It once flowed through the area.
What caused “megafloods?”
Alberto G. Fairén is a visiting astrobiologist at Cornell University in New York. He helped guide the research and was a co-author of the study.
“We identified megafloods for the first time using detailed sedimentological data observed by the Curiosity rover,” he said in a statement. Fairén added that such deposits, “Left by megaflood”, it had not been identified by any past Mars observation.
Scientists believe that the most likely cause of the massive flooding of Mars “was the sudden heat produced by a large impactThe heat from the struck meteorite likely caused the ice from frozen water bodies to melt to release carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.
The study suggests that this event led to a temporary shift on Mars from a cold, dry climate to a hot, humid period. This has led to intense and prolonged rains across the planet. This water “combined with water roaring down from (a mountain within the Gale crater) to cause gigantic flash floods, ”the study said.
Evidence includes Curiosity observations of large wave-shaped elements in the sedimentary layers of the Gale Crater. Researchers describe these elements as “antidunes,” small hills of sand that form from streams of water. The observed antidunes were about 30 feet high and spaced about 137 meters from each other, Ezat Heydari said. He is a professor of physics at the American Jackson State University in Mississippi and a co-author of the study.
Heydari said the antidunes are evidence of megaflood flowing at the bottom of the Gale crater about 4 billion years ago. He noted that they are exactly like the elements formed by the melting of ice on Earth about 2 million years ago.
Growing evidence of a habitable planet
Cornell’s Fairén said evidence of early Mars suggests it geologically, it was “an extremely active planet”. Mars “had the necessary conditions to support the presence of liquid water on the surface,” he added.
The latest study adds to the growing evidence that Mars had the conditions to be one habitable planet. Fairén says scientists will now try to uncover evidence that it was actually inhabited.
He noted that such evidence could come from NASA’s new rover, Perseverance. The Mars explorer, which NASA calls its smartest rover, was launched into space on July 30.
Perseverance, which will aim to search for new signs of life on Mars, will reach the planet’s Jezero crater in February 2021.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story, based on reports from Cornell University, Nature Scientific Reports and NASA. Hai Do was the publisher.
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Words in this story
crater – n. a large round hole in the ground created by a bomb exploding or something falling from the sky
meteor – n. a rock from outer space that becomes very hot and burns intensely in the sky as it enters the earth’s atmosphere
sediment – n. a solid substance that forms a layer at the bottom of a liquid
megaflood – n. a great, catastrophic flood
to deposit – n. a layer of a substance that has developed from a natural or chemical process
impact – n. a powerful effect that something has on a particular person or situation
roar – v. moving fast and powerfully
gigantic – adj. very wide
geological – adj. the study of rocks and similar substances that make up the earth’s surface
habitable – adj. capable of sustaining life
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