According to a new research from the team behind NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, parts of Mars witnessed "major" flash floods that sculpted the landscape into the stony wasteland we know today, particularly the Jezero Crater, which scientists believe may harbor clues to past Martian life.
The discoveries were based on photographs taken by the rover of sediment gathered near the end of an ancient river that fed a lake inside the Jezero Crater, according to the scientists.
The images, which were acquired during a landing on February 18 and released on Thursday, reveal that Mars had a thick atmosphere capable of supporting enormous amounts of water billions of years ago. The material in the images depicts a now-defunct river delta that was flooded by "late-stage flooding events" that transported stones and debris from the Martian highlands to the crater's banks.
Lead scientist Nicolas Mangold of the Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique noted, "Never before has such well-preserved stratigraphy been visible on Mars." "This is the crucial finding that allows us to definitively establish the existence of a lake and river delta at Jezero. Getting a deeper knowledge of the hydrology months before we arrive at the delta will pay us handsomely in the long run."
According to the NASA press release, the team has "long planned to visit the delta" heading into the Jezero Crater because it could hold ancient microbial life remains.
The photographs acquired have provided scientists with information on where they may discover the best rock samples to look for indications of life that may have been on Mars in the past, which they want to bring back to Earth to investigate with more powerful lab equipment. Scientists are encouraged by the discovery of so much old water.
"We found distinct strata in the scarps with rocks up to 5 feet across that we knew shouldn't be there," Mangold added.
"In the scarps, we discovered different strata with boulders up to 5 feet across that we knew shouldn't be there," Mangold explained.
The discoveries "may potentially provide vital insights into why the entire planet dried out" and what happened to the ancient microbial life, according to Sanjeev Gupta, a co-author of the paper from Imperial College in London.
NASA intends to send spacecraft to Mars in the near future to collect rock samples and return them to Earth.