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The Hellas Planitia region of Mars, where scientists believe that small lakes come and go regularly.
Credit: NASA / JPL / USGS
Before Mars became an extremely cold and dry world, the water flowed and flowed on the surface of the planet, as here on Earth. Now scientists have identified traces of three different sets of these ancient lakes – about 77 km.
These three sets of water masses on Mars were probably formed differently, wrote the scientists behind the new research. One class was formed directly by rainfall, another fed by the waters passing through the Martian soil and another by rivers carrying water to the surface. All studied lake beds are located in a region called Hellas Planitia, the basin left by an ancient and massive impact.
"These canals, several hundred meters wide, traverse vast expanses of volcanic lava and ash-laden impact debris on the interior slope of the Hellas Basin," said co-author Virginia Gulick, a geoscientist with the SETI Institute, in a statement. by the institution. [The Search for Water on Mars in Pictures]
Many of these lake beds have reminded authors of similar features on Earth. For example, a temporary lake looks like an element of eastern Washington formed by a catastrophic flood. Another is more like elements along the Mississippi River, where water has been flowing for centuries. A lake full of sediments seems to mimic the salt lakes of the high Andes, where it is always cold and dry. The authors wrote that if the lakes were close enough to a heat source, they could even be habitable.
The research is described in an article published Oct. 30 in the journal Astrobiology.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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