NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2015 Oct 08
[img3="Strata at Base of Mount Sharp - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSA new study from the team behind NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity has confirmed that Mars was once, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended period of time.
A view from the "Kimberly" formation on Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity rover. The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating the ancient depression that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed."]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/ima ... 839_ip.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
Using data from the Curiosity rover, the team has determined that, long ago, water helped deposit sediment into Gale Crater, where the rover landed more than three years ago. The sediment deposited as layers that formed the foundation for Mount Sharp, the mountain found in the middle of the crater today.
"Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and co-author of the new Science article to be published Friday, Oct. 9.
The findings build upon previous work that suggested there were ancient lakes on Mars, and add to the unfolding story of a wet Mars, both past and present. Last month, NASA scientists confirmed current water flows on Mars. ...
Wet Paleoclimate of Mars Revealed by Ancient Lakes at Gale Crater
California Institute of Technology | 2015 Oct 08
Deposition, exhumation, and paleoclimate of an ancient lake deposit, Gale crater, Mars - J. P. Grotzinger et al
- Science 350(6257): (09 Oct 2015) DOI: 10.1126/science.aac7575