Perseverance finds traces of an overflowing river on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Mars’ Jezero crater, has discovered what may have once been a high-energy riverbed. The discovery was made at a site known as Skrinkle Haven, where the rover found coarse grains and cobbles that suggest a powerful flow of water. According to Libby Ives, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, “The more powerful the flow of water, the more easily it's able to move larger pieces of material.”

Perseverance also discovered curving bands of layered rock at Skrinkle Haven, which NASA officials say were most likely formed by powerfully flowing water. However, it remains a matter of debate as to whether the river that created the landscape was snaking or braided with protruding sandbars. The rock bands were likely much taller initially but were cut down to their present size by the sandblasting Martian wind, according to Michael Lamb, a river specialist based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Space.com reports.

Further potential evidence of fast-flowing ancient water comes from Pinestand, a hill that lies about 0.28 miles (0.45 kilometers) from Skrinkle Haven. Pinestand features sedimentary rock layers, some of which rise as high as 65 feet (20 meters). Ives stated that “these layers are anomalously tall for rivers on Earth,” but also noted that “the most common way to create these kinds of landforms would be a river.”

The 28-mile-wide (45 km) Jezero crater hosted a big lake and a river delta long ago. The Perseverance rover will continue exploring and characterizing this intriguing environment, which researchers think was capable of supporting Earth-like life long ago. According to Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance Deputy Project Scientist of JPL, “We're thinking about rivers on a different scale than we have before.”

Perseverance landed on Jezero's floor in February 2021, along with NASA's tiny Ingenuity helicopter. The rover is studying Jezero's geology, hunting for signs of past Mars life, and collecting samples for future return to Earth. Scientists believe that Mars was once a warmer, wetter planet, and the discovery of the high-energy riverbed further supports this theory.

NASA’s Perseverance mission is part of a larger effort to understand Mars’ past and present environments, and to pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. The rover’s discoveries could provide valuable information about the potential habitability of Mars and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.