We Now Have More Evidence a Rushing River Existed on Mars Billions of Years Ago

[Judi Lynn]

VICTOR TANGERMANN, FUTURISM
8 MAY 2020

An international team of scientists has found new evidence of rivers that flowed on the surface of Mars billions of years ago — a discovery that could give us new insights into the search for ancient life on the Red Planet.

As outlined in a study published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists analyzed new, high-resolution imagery from the HiRISE camera on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

"Unfortunately we don't have the ability to climb, to look at the finer-scale details, but the striking similarities to sedimentary rocks on Earth leaves very little to the imagination," lead author Francesco Salese, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said in a statement.

The team transformed the images into 3D topographyical maps of Hellas Basin on Mars, one of the largest impact craters in our solar system. They discovered sediment deposits about 200 meters (656 feet) high, roughly twice the height of the White Cliffs of Dover, as New Scientist points out, and 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) wide.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/we-just-found-new-evidence-that-a-rushing-river-once-existed-on-mars