Scientists are doing a “reading on rocks” for Mars to discover any sign of liquid water on its surface. With new data of exposed cliffs on Mars and detailed pictures, scientists got a piece of evidence finally. The first rivers that existed for over 100,000 years on the Red Planet’s ground 3.7 billion years ago have been now found. What was different this time around? Also, what took scientists so long to find something like that? And is this a hint to ancient alien life on Mars?
The team of scientists utilized topography and imagery detected by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera to examine a side of the Hellas Basin in Mars’ southern hemisphere. That Hellas impact crater was always so intriguing yet so challenging to study because it represents one of the biggest in our solar system.
Hellas is stretching around nine kilometers from the crater level to rim. Here, old proof of large rivers, canals, lakes, and deltas can be spotted in the rocks. Such a discovery is unique and so fascinating. The rocks unveil, too, that the Red Planet must have had a significant and sustained water presence in its history.
Mars might have housed ancient alien life since it had a complex river system
Scientists centered their research on a rocky cliff, almost 200 meters high. The rocks are approximately 3.7 billion years old. Comprised of sediment gathered over time, they’re similar to what we have here on Earth.
These exposed cliffs on the Martian ground display some “rivers that continuously shifted their gullies, developing sandbanks, similar to the Rhine or the rivers that you can find in Northern Italy,” explained the scientists.
Unfortunately, the team can’t take a look at finer-scale details, but the fact that the rocks resemble those on our planet leaves very little to the imagination. The sedimentary rocks keep a record of the historical layers, and the scientists were able to establish that the canals of these ancient rivers were some meters deep. Accordingly, it might be the best evidence of ancient alien life on Mars since we all know that life can thrive where water exists.
