Friday, October 9, 2015

NASAs Mars Curiosity Rover finds Mount Sharp was once a huge lake


Mount Sharp on Mars was once home to huge lakes that remained for up to 10,000 years at a time - long enough to support life. This is the latest discovery by NASAs Curiosity Rover that had landed in Gale Crater in August 2012. The rock formations that have been photographed by the rover would suggest that long ago a transient water system of deltas and lakes had dominated the landscape of Gale Crater.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 9 October 2015.
The images show evidence of sediments transported southward by shallow streams to the boundary of an ancient lake. It may be recalled that recently NASA scientists had confirmed that current water flows on Mars.
As explained by scientists - the Gale crater floor today is the lowest topographic depression for over 1,000-Km in any direction, including the northern plains. It seems water collected there, in surface and subsurface reservoirs. And that had been happening for a geologically and perhaps biologically relevant period of time.
Moreover, observations from the rover tend to suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago. These delivered sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp.
Obviously, a conclusion can be reached that there were ancient lakes on Mars.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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