NASA spacecraft reveals: "Mars was covered in rivers that could have hosted life"
A new analysis of data obtained from NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars has revealed that many of the craters on the Red Planet today may have once been rivers suitable for hosting life.
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Benjamin Cardenas, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University in the US and lead author of the study, said, "We found evidence that Mars was likely a planet of rivers."
The scientist added, "We see signs of this all over the planet."
According to Independent Türkçe, Cardenas and his team used numerical models to simulate the erosion that occurred on Mars over thousands of years. The analysis, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, concluded that the widespread crater formations on the Red Planet are most likely the remnants of ancient riverbeds.
"NOT A SNAPSHOT"
The most common craters on Mars had never before been associated with eroded river deposits. Cardenas stated, "This analysis is not a snapshot, but a record of change."
What we see on Mars today is not a frozen landscape in time, but the remnants of an active geological history. The data that made the discovery possible were found by Curiosity in the Gale crater. The rover is currently traveling around the crater and collecting data. On the other hand, researchers believe that undiscovered riverbeds may exist elsewhere on the planet.
"IMPORTANT CORRIDORS"
Moreover, these rivers may have once hosted various forms of life. Cardenas said, "On Earth, river corridors are very important in terms of life, chemical cycles, nutrient cycles, and sediment cycles."
Everything we have indicates that these rivers performed a similar function on Mars.
The scientist, who said, "Our research indicates that there may be far more rivers on Mars than previously thought. This certainly offers a more optimistic perspective on the life that is thought to have once existed on Mars," continued his words as follows:
The findings present a picture of Mars where most of the planet once had the right conditions for life.
DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING MARS ARE COMING ONE AFTER ANOTHER
In recent days, it was announced that according to data from satellites orbiting Mars, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake lasting 6 hours occurred on Mars, and this was the largest seismic event detected to date.