When did the water on Mars stop?
It is one of the most intriguing questions in planetary science. It is thought that Mars has been a bone-dry desert for 3 billion years. Water flowed on the red planet 2 billion years ago, or 1 billion years earlier than researchers thought, according to new research from Mars scientists.
If any existed, they could have had more time to live on the surface of Mars.
Mars had habitats for longer than we thought, according to a planetary scientist. The research was published in the journal AGU Advances.
"Mars had habitats for longer than we thought."
An excellent example of this evidence for water is shown in the image below, which was captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The researchers looked at images of depressions and channels that had big deposits of salt. There are clumps of white in the channel. The crater to the right of the ancient waterway is about a mile wide.
The deposits of salt are downslope. It is clear from the evidence that the water came from snow and ice on the slopes and hills. The salty mineral deposits were found in both shallow ponds and winding channels.
An image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows salt deposits lying in a dried-out channel on Mars.Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
An artist's conception of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter above Mars.Credit: NASA
The researchers used well-known understandings of how long ago craters and volcanic lands formed on Mars to date the salty deposits. If volcanic terrain formed some 2 billion years ago, the salts collected on top must have flowed through after to provide an age estimate.
The salts were discovered by an earlier Mars satellite. New, exciting insights about water on Mars have arisen from the old discoveries.
Mars was once a world with oceans similar to Earth, according to planetary scientists. It is not known if any life flourished on Mars. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently looking for signs of past life in the planet's Jezero Crater, a place the space agency says was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta.
The Jezero crater probably held water 3.5 billion years ago. It is believed that Mars hosted water much later than 2 billion years ago. Stay informed. The people are on the water trail.
The amount of liquid water may have been more recent than we think.
