NASA Finds Evidence of Ancient Waves on Desert Planet
ByYusuf Balogun 10/02/23
NASA CURIOSITY ROVER
NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars has found clear evidence of ancient water waves on the desert planet.
Scientists now have the clearest proof yet that there were once water waves on the Red Planet thanks to rippling rocks discovered by a NASA rover while it was exploring the foothills of a Martian mountain.
These grooves, according to the scientists, may have been generated by waves of water lapping on a shallow lake's surface billions of years ago.
"We climbed through thousands of feet of lake deposits and never saw evidence like this. Now we found it in a place we expected to be dry," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For many years, scientists have discovered evidence that Mars formerly had rivers and lakes. The earth was hollowed out and covered with dust when Martian water carved deep ravines and sinuous river courses into it.