This Wednesday, February 8, NASA published photos of “wrinkles” on the ground of Mars. Taken by its Curiosity rover, they thus prove the presence of an ancient deep lake.
An important discovery. On Wednesday, February 8, NASA released images of “ripples” on Martian soil. According to the US space agency, it is “the best evidence of water and waves that we have seen in the entire mission” of the Curiosity robot. Since 2012, the rover has been multiplying the shots in the hope of having proof of the past presence of water on the surface of the red planet.
“A deep lake”?
These “wrinkles” could indicate the ancient presence of a “shallow lake”, reports NASA in a press release quoted by Point. “We have passed by ancient lakes many times, but we have never seen evidence like this,” Ashwin Vasavada, one of the NASA scientists contributing to the Curiosity project, pointed out in a video. Youtube.
This discovery was unexpected for the space agency, the soil of the region being made up of rocks formed at a time when Mars “were drying up”, according to the scientists. Curiosity couldn’t dig. The surface was too hard, reports BFM TV.
“More recent” traces
The robot also identified even more recent traces of water near these “ripples” and the remains of a landslide at the level of a 5 km high mountain. “These traces of landslides are probably the most recent evidence of the presence of water [sur Mars] that we will see,” says Ashwin Vasavada.
According to NASA, water evaporated from the surface of Mars about 3.5 billion years ago. However, lakes would still be present under layers of ice.