2023-12-26 15:10:51
New Photos from Perseverance Rover Reveal Evidence of Ancient Floods on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured striking new images that provide clear evidence of ancient floods on Mars, painting a picture of a once-humid environment on the red planet. The photos show boulders covering Jezero Crater, suggesting that powerful floods washed boulders into this dried-up river delta billions of years ago.
According to NASA, about 3.5 billion years ago, large amounts of water flowed through the flat Isidis Planitia on Mars. Sometimes the water flow was fast and strong enough to break through the crater walls and transport boulders to the crater for accumulation.
Most recently, the Perseverance rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to take a mosaic photo of the “Castell Henllys” site. The image, consisting of three images looking toward the southwest, shows a large number of round boulders scattered on the surface. NASA has confirmed that these boulders were washed into the Jezero Crater by strong floods billions of years ago, indicating that Mars once had a large amount of flowing water.
The main mission of Perseverance is to search for potential signs of past life on Mars – although there is no evidence yet. The Jezero Crater, which once had streams and a 35-kilometer-wide lake, is believed to have been a good place for life to thrive if microorganisms had evolved there.
In addition to searching for signs of past life, Perseverance is also working to collect original samples from the Martian surface, which will be sealed and sent back to Earth for in-depth analysis in the future.
The latest photos from Perseverance provide further insights into the ancient environmental conditions on Mars, fueling excitement among scientists and space enthusiasts about what else may be uncovered as the mission continues.
(Source of first picture: NASA）
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