NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has discovered evidence of ripples from an ancient Red Planet lake, providing a rare glimpse into the planet’s warm and wet climate billions of years ago. The ripples, which suggest that the lake was free of ice at one point, were found in rock formations dating back 3.7 billion years.
According to researchers, the shape and size of the ripples can only have been formed under water open to the atmosphere and acted upon by wind. This indicates that Mars’ climate would have been warm and its surface wet at the time.
Using computer models, scientists estimated the lake’s depth to be less than six feet deep. This discovery builds upon previous findings from other NASA missions, including Opportunity and Curiosity, which previously discovered ripples formed by water flowing across ancient Mars.
The find offers an important insight into the planet’s early climate and suggests that there could have been periods of ice-free water on Mars for up to 10 million years. The discovery was published in the journal Science Advances on January 15.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/mars-rovers/nasas-curiosity-mars-rover-discovers-evidence-of-ripples-from-an-ancient-red-planet-lake-images