The Perseverance spacecraft has revealed Mars’ deepest and fastest river in history. Here are the details of the river and images of the sediments left behind by the river:
The Perseverance spacecraft is exploring Mars’ Jezero Crater as part of its mission to search for evidence of ancient life on Mars. The history of water is key in the search for life, and according to current research, Mars’ water ran out about 4 million years ago. The Perseverance spacecraft identified evidence of one of the deepest and fastest-flowing rivers once discovered on the planet.
Here is an image of the sediments left by the river that Perseverance discovered:
The spacecraft captured hundreds of images using the Mastcam-Z instrument, which created this image showing a hill structure called Pinestand. It is possible to see many layers of sediment deposits left behind by the flowing river in the image.
The structure of the sedimentary rocks suggests that the river passing through this region was fast and strong. “These show a high-energy river carrying a lot of debris. The stronger the water flow, the easier it can move larger chunks of material. It’s a treat to look at rocks on another planet and see these processes,” said Libby Ives of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement. it was a pleasure.” she said.
