Mars Rover Lake - The latest discovery in Mars may now prove that microbial life in the fourth planet is really possible. On Monday, scientists revealed that their Mars rover has found what appears to be a lake on second smallest planet in our solar system.
NASA's Mars rover has reportedly been collecting data from the said planet for over two years now. The extraterrestrial terrain vehicle landed inside Gale Crater in August 2012, according to Yahoo! News.
After analyzing all of the collected data, scientists found that there are stacks of rocks containing water-deposited sediments inclined towards the crater's centre, which now has a large mound they refer to as Mount Sharp.
Scientists believe that the mound may have been filled with water at least 3.5 billion years ago, and this rare finding could mean a lot of hope for believers that there is life out there apart from the living planet Earth.
"Finding the inclined strata was ... a complete surprise," lead scientist John Grotzinger said. "Sedimentary geology ... is the cutting edge for trying to understand the Earth. When oil companies collect seismic surveys across places, they are looking for inclined strata because ... then you get geometry that tells you where the rocks are that you're looking for."
Geological observations on Mars with the help of NASA's rover also suggest that the said lake is bigger that Salt Lake and even higher than Mount Rainier, reports NBC News.
The lake is believed to have formed from repeated cycles of sediment buildup and erosion in the second smallest planet.
The Mars Rover Lake discovery also hints that Mars could have sustained life many, many years ago just like what Earth is doing now.
"We can see a whole series of beds, of sandstones, with some pebble beds in there, that are actually inclined at a large scale toward the south," scientist Sanjeev Gupta of the $2.5 billion worth Curiosity mission told reporters on a conference call on Monday.
Gupta further explained that similar inclined beds are common here on Earth at the mouths of river channels where they feed into lakes.
"We are beginning to think that maybe Mount Sharp formed in a series of episodes involving sedimentation and erosion, stacked by different processes," Grotzinger said.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity landed inside Gale Crater with the main purpose of assessing whether the planet also has the same chemical ingredients and conditions as the Earth to sustain life, Discovery has learned.
As of late, scientists have not yet disclosed data on what chemicals are present on the lakebed deposits.
Grotzinger told reporters that they are yet to prepare a manuscript on the Mars Rover Lake discovery and share their latest findings for scientific journal publication.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
