NASA Spacecraft Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

[Bonescrat]

"WASHINGTON -- Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life."

One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.

"This three-dimensional image of a trough shows a type of minerals called phyllosilicates (in magenta and blue hues) concentrated on the slopes of mesas and along canyon walls. The abundance of phyllosilicates shows that water played a sizable role in changing the minerals of a variety of terrains in the planet's early history." Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/University of Arizona/Brown University

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20080716.html

Much cooler picture at the link but it's 1865x1495 pixels. Best to see it there.

[Indenturedebtor]

1. So where is the water exactly... at the poles? n/t