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3.7 billion-year-old wave traces on Mars: Could have hosted life

byadmin
January 22, 2025

NASA’s Curiosity rover has revealed ancient wave traces on the surface of Mars that are thought to date back 3.7 billion years. These traces indicate the existence of liquid water that once existed on the planet. According to scientists, this finding is evidence that Mars had a warmer and denser atmosphere in the past.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has made a groundbreaking discovery on the surface of Mars. Ancient wave marks, thought to date back approximately 3.7 billion years, indicate that the planet once had open-surface liquid water bodies.
The marks found by Curiosity are similar to the small ripples seen in lake beds on Earth. The researchers say these ripples were created by wind moving water back and forth across the surface. This means that this water is not covered with ice, but has an open surface.
Wave traces were found in Gale Crater, and analysis shows that these waves formed about 3.7 billion years ago. According to geological examinations, this body of water should have been a shallow pond and was about 2 meters deep.
Although Mars has a cold and dry surface today, ancient traces show that the planet once had conditions that could support life. Curiosity’s discovery suggests that the Martian atmosphere was denser before thinning over time, and that liquid water may have been common on the surface.
According to a study published in the journal Science Advances by John Grotzinger and Michael Lamb from Caltech, the discovered wave signatures are identical to ripples that form in shallow water bodies. In addition to these traces in the region called “Prow,” researchers found similar formations in rocks rich in sulfate called the “Amapari Marker Band.”
Launched by NASA in 2011, Curiosity has been conducting research around Gale Crater since 2012. The main goal of the mission is to understand whether Mars supported primitive life in the past. The rover is equipped with a variety of technologies, from drilling on the surface to atmospheric analysis.
Curiosity’s findings provide new information about the early climate of Mars, while providing the opportunity to take a closer look at the periods when the planet hosted liquid water. Although NASA’s Opportunity rover has discovered similar wave signatures in the past, it was unclear what type of water masses these traces belonged to. The new discovery may help us better understand the ancient atmospheric conditions of Mars.
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