14 DAY TRIAL // Thanks to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we now know that liquid water every now and again forms and flows down slopes on the Red Planet.
Interestingly, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that, while it might be true that Mars still holds some water today, the fact of the matter is it could be that it was pretty much soaking in it when it was younger.
More precisely, the scientists claim to have found evidence that, about 3 billion years ago, there was water in abundance on this nearby celestial body, lakes, streams, rivers and all.
A better understanding of Mars' early history
In a study published earlier this week in the journal Nature Communications, the University of Pennsylvania researchers detail how, back in 2012, while exploring Mars' Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover chanced to happen upon a collection of round and oddly smooth pebbles.
Admittedly, finding rocks on the Red Planet is not exactly breaking news material. All the same, the scientists could not help but take an interest in these peculiar pebbles documented by Curiosity.
Judging by their shape and the fact that they are almost perfectly smooth, the scientists suspect that they were once part of a riverbed and that they owe their current appearance to being tossed around and shaped by fast flowing water for millennia, maybe even longer.
The specialists further explain that, according to their calculations, the pebbles appear to have been pushed around over a distance of at least 30 miles (50 kilometers). If it was indeed a river that shaped them, it must have been a pretty massive one, the team argue.
On this journey, the pebbles lost about 20% of their initial mass, the researchers calculate. It wasn't much, but they shrank just the right way to acquire a distinctive round shape hinting at their origin.
Mars might have been life-friendly when young
Here on our planet, water is a prerequisite of life. Hence, the University of Pennsylvania research team cannot help but wonder whether this river that once flowed on Mars might not have harbored primitive life forms too. Of course, future investigations are needed to confirm this theory.
“The Martian pebbles traveled roughly 30 miles from their source, providing additional evidence for the idea that Mars once had an extensive river system, conditions that could support life,” the scientists argue in a report detailing their work.
