INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NASA&s rover Perseverance has gathered data confirming the existence of ancient lake sediments deposited by water that once filled a giant
basin on Mars called Jerezo Crater, according to a study published on Friday.The findings from ground-penetrating radar observations
conducted by the robotic rover substantiate previous orbital imagery and other data leading scientists to theorize that portions of Mars
were once covered in water and may have harbored microbial life, Reuters reported.The research, led by teams from the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Oslo, was published in the journal Science Advances, opens new tab.It was based on
subsurface scans taken by the car-sized, six-wheeled rover over several months of 2022 as it made its way across the Martian surface from
the crater floor onto an adjacent expanse of braided, sedimentary-like features resembling, from orbit, the river deltas found on
Earth.Soundings from the rover&s RIMFAX radar instrument allowed scientists to peer underground to get a cross-sectional view of rock layers
65 feet (20 meters) deep, &almost like looking at a road cut,& said UCLA planetary scientist David Paige, the first author of the
paper.Those layers provide unmistakable evidence that soil sediments carried by water were deposited at Jerezo Crater and its delta from a
river that fed it, just as they are in lakes on Earth
The findings reinforced what previous studies have long suggested & that cold, arid, lifeless Mars was once warm, wet and perhaps
habitable.Scientists look forward to an up-close examination of Jerezo&s sediments & thought to have formed some 3 billion years ago & in
samples collected by Perseverance for future transport to Earth.In the meantime, the latest study is welcome validation that scientists
undertook their geo-biological Mars endeavor at the right place on the planet after all.Remote analysis of early core samples drilled by
Perseverance at four sites close to where it landed in February 2021 surprised researchers by revealing rock that was volcanic in nature,
rather than sedimentary as had been expected.The two studies are not contradictory
Even the volcanic rocks bore signs of alteration through exposure to water, and scientists who published those findings in August 2022
reasoned then that sedimentary deposits may have eroded away.Indeed, the RIMFAX radar readings reported on Friday found signs of erosion
before and after the formation of sedimentary layers identified at the crater&s western edge, evidence of a complex geological history
there, Paige said.&There were volcanic rocks that we the landed on,& Paige said
&The real news here is that now we&ve driven onto the delta and now we&re seeing evidence of these lake sediments, which is one of the main
reasons we came to this location
So that&s a happy story in that respect.&The post Mars rover data confirms ancient lake sediments on red planet first appeared on Ariana
