By plying its ground-penetrating radar in the depths of Mars’s Jezero Crater, this rover has found even older deltas buried beneath those seen on the surface from space
By plying its ground-penetrating radar in the depths of Mars’s Jezero Crater, this rover has found even older deltas buried beneath those seen on the surface from spaceJezero Crater is a hot spot for scientists seeking evidence of past life on Mars, thanks to this site’s ancient river deltas that could contain preserved biosignatures.
. We leverage third party services to both verify and deliver email. By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes.The latest evidence that Mars was once a warmer, wetter world comes from a surprising place—the hidden subsurface depths of Jezero Crater—rather than its surface, which NASA’s Perseverance roverfor the past five years. The site of a vast, dried-up lake, Jezero also hosts ancient river deltas. Laid down by flowing water as early as 3.7 billion years ago, these deltas are so sprawling that they can be seen from orbit. Now, however, Perseverance’s ground-penetrating radar has found signs of an even older river-and-delta system at Jezero that is buried deep beneath the surface.“It extends the window of fluvial deposition on Mars,” says Emily Cardarelli, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the study’s lead author. “On Earth those conditions produce minerals that can preserve fossils.. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.that slammed into Mars’s surface almost four billion years ago. NASA chose it as Perseverance’s exploration zone because it has a wealth of fluvial features that hint that the crater was once ripe for life—and for preserving life’s telltale traces in stone. The new study relies on data from 78 traverses of the area from September 2023 to February 2024. The rover used its radar capabilities to study layers of sediment buried more than 35 meters below ground—nearly twice as deep as it had previously probed—where it registered echoes of even older river-carved slopes and sinuous, meandering channels. These subsurface features, the researchers say, formed as early as 4.2 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years before the water-washed terrain that Perseverance has been studying on the surface. That means there were multiple sustained periods of water flow in the crater’s history—multiple opportunities scattered across Jezero’s deep past in which it might have harbored life. Perseverance used its ground-penetrating radar to chart evidence of what might be a 4.2-billion-year-old river delta buried beneath Jezero Crater’s surface.The result also reinforces that Mars is now a planet that is almost frozen in time, with lands that are. “The fact that we have this record of this age is remarkable,” Cardarelli says. On Earth, rocks of a similar age lost any clear signature of ancient rivers long ago. “They’ve been heated, they’ve been squished, and they’ve been altered by water,” she says. “They’ve had a rough time. With this more intact geological record, astrobiologists hope Mars can yield not only the first-ever smoking-gun proof of extraterrestrial life but also clearer data on how that life emerged in the first place. This question, it turns out, could be of equal importance for understanding life’s origins on Earth as well:suggests that ancient asteroid impacts much like the one that carved out Jezero Crater could have also exported any early Martian life to our own world. The newfound buried river delta “is very clear evidence for a long duration of activity,” says Jack Mustard, a planetary scientist at Brown University, who has extensively studied Jezero Crater. “And that’s very exciting to have.” Mustard says the distinct delta beneath the soil isn’t surprising because sporadic periods of flow are common in the formation of rivers and lakes. “If you were to ask someone how the Mississippi Delta formed,” he says, “you would see multiple episodes of overlapping deltas.” Cardarelli says that we haven’t heard the last about Jezero from Perseverance. “There’s a lot more to say about this particular area—and other areas within the crater,” she says. “We’re still digesting all our data.”has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too., you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Colorado's connection to NASA's upcoming Artemis II moon missionDanielle Kreutter is a multimedia journalist for Denver7 KMGH in Denver, Colorado.
Read more »
NASA will roll Artemis 2 moon rocket back to the launch pad on March 20Josh Dinner is the Staff Writer for Spaceflight at Space.com. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016.
Read more »
NASA confirms meteor caused loud boom across Northeast OhioCourtney is a digital producer at News 5. She loves all things Cleveland and is a huge sports fan.
Read more »
NASA confirms meteor over northeast Ohio; boom heard from Pennsylvania to New YorkAn incredible sight lit up the skies over northeast Ohio just hours ago, and it came with a sound that people across several states could hear.Video posted to s
Read more »
New NASA Chief Aiming for Moon Landings Every Month in 2027Building a lunar base will require regular trips to the Moon's surface, according to Jared Isaacman.
Read more »
NASA wants your hail photosAndrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer focused primarily on tech, AI, physics, and culture news. He was previously a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has been featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. He lives outside Indianapolis.
Read more »