{"id":24293,"date":"2023-05-20T21:53:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T13:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/perseverance-finds-mars-river-could-have-been-wilder-mars-express-takes-new-volcano-images-2\/"},"modified":"2023-05-20T21:53:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T13:53:06","slug":"perseverance-finds-mars-river-could-have-been-wilder-mars-express-takes-new-volcano-images-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/perseverance-finds-mars-river-could-have-been-wilder-mars-express-takes-new-volcano-images-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Perseverance finds Mars river could have been \u2018wilder,\u2019 Mars Express takes new volcano images"},"content":{"rendered":"

May has been a big month for scientific discoveries on Mars, as NASA\u2019s Perseverance<\/em> rover has continued to find more convincing evidence of what could have once been a \u201cdeeper and faster-moving\u201d river than data initially suggested. New images taken by the rover\u2019s main camera show two mosaics of course sediment grains and tall, curving layers of rock that suggest the river once flowed powerfully through the region.<\/p>\n

But Perseverance<\/em> isn\u2019t alone in its discovery, as the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) Mars Express<\/em> orbiter has also had a busy month, as it studied the Martian planet\u2019s second tallest volcano, and has captured new, stunning images of its fissured flank. These images provide a deeper glimpse of how the grooves on the surface were created, whether by water or lava.<\/p>\n

Mars is the most explored planet in the Solar System (outside of Earth) due to its interesting landscape that could harbor signs of ancient microbial life. Perseverance<\/em> landed on Mars in February 2021 and since then has been working with its helicopter companion, Ingenuity<\/em>, to study its surface and cache samples of the Martian surface to return to Earth. Mars Express<\/em> has been surveying the Red Planet since its launch in 2003 and continues to surpass what was expected to be only a two-year mission.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A wilder ancient river<\/p>\n

Since its landing on Mars, Perseverance\u2019s<\/em> primary task has been to study and cache samples from Jezero Crater, a crater located to the west of a flat plain called Isidis Planitia. The crater was chosen as the spacecraft\u2019s landing location as it is believed to have once been home to an ancient river delta.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft has made several discoveries that suggest the former existence of an ancient river, but only now has it found that the water\u2019s flow could have been much wilder than expected. Perseverance<\/em> is currently exploring the top of a \u201cfan-shaped pile\u201d of 820-foot-tall sedimentary rock which was formed with curving layers. Scientists have been trying to figure out whether it once hosted shallow streams or a deeper, more powerful water system.<\/p>\n

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Martian rocks that may have been formed by a fast moving, wild river. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

With new images captured by the rover\u2019s Mastcam-Z instrument, which is mounted on its mast and considered the \u2018main eyes\u2019 of the spacecraft, scientists have found that two new mosaics showing coarse sediment grains and cobbles suggest the former existence of \u201chigh-energy river\u201d.<\/p>\n

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    With this new glimpse, scientists are now trying to identify what kind of river this could have been (i.e. whether it\u2019s like the Mississippi with a \u201csnakelike\u201d landscape or a \u201cbraided river\u201d like Nebraska\u2019s Platte). From Perseverance\u2019s<\/em> view, the curved layers have been arranged in rows that ripple out across the landscape, suggesting either remnants of sandbars that formed in the river, or riverbanks that have shifted over time.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe more powerful the flow of water, the more easily it\u2019s able to move larger pieces of material,\u201d said Libby Ives, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).<\/p>\n

    These images were taken from the location of the \u2018curvilinear unit\u2019 within the Jezero Crater. The first mosaic features one part of the unit, called \u2018Skrinkle Haven.\u2019<\/p>\n

    The second mosaic, an isolated hill called \u2018Pinestand\u2019, shown in the new images and located about a quarter mile from Skrinkle Haven, depicts 66-foot-high sedimentary layers that point toward the sky. The scientists also believe that these unusually tall layers of rock were formed by a river but are seeking other explanations as well.<\/p>\n

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    Perseverance\u2019s view of Pinestand. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

    \u201cThese layers are anomalously tall for rivers on Earth,\u201d Ives continued. \u201cBut at the same time, the most common way to create these kinds of landforms would be a river.\u201d<\/p>\n

    NASA\u2019s Curiosity<\/em> rover, another rover that has been studying Gale Crater on Mars since 2012, has found evidence of an ancient river much less powerful and shallow than what could have existed in Jezero.<\/p>\n

    More signs of water at Belva Crater<\/p>\n

    Adding to the already growing signs of water at Jezero Crater, Perseverance<\/em> has taken 152 new images of a nearby crater that \u201cindicate the presence of a large Martian sandbar.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Belva Crater was likely created by the impact of a meteorite long ago and features 0.6 miles of exposed bedrock and sedimentary layers of rock that are angled downwards. The images, taken on April 22 and released on May 18, show \u201cdipping beds\u201d that could prove a sandbar made of sediment was deposited by a river channel flowing into the Jezero Crater lake.<\/p>\n

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    Perseverance\u2019s image of Belva Crater. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

    \u201cMars rover missions usually end up exploring bedrock in small, flat exposures in the immediate workspace of the rover,\u201d said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance\u2019s<\/em> deputy project scientist at JPL said. \u201cThat\u2019s why our science team was so keen to image and study Belva. Impact craters can offer grand views and vertical cuts that provide important clues to the origin of these rocks with a perspective and at a scale that we don\u2019t usually experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Scientists studying the images are trying to figure out whether the large boulders were either formed by the meteorite impact or moved into the crater by the river system.<\/p>\n

    In a blog post from NASA posted on May 16, Perseverance<\/em> recently performed an abrasion called \u201cOuzel Falls.\u201d The image shows large grains created by the abrasion, and could be useful for \u201cexploring elemental and mineral composition,\u201d the blog post explains.<\/p>\n

    Mars Express captures Ascraeus Mons<\/p>\n

    ESA\u2019s Mars Express<\/em> orbiter arrived at Mars in December 2003 and was developed to study the planet\u2019s atmosphere, surface, subsurface, and Mars\u2019 moons Phobos and Deimos. Currently, the orbiter is exploring Martian volcanoes, and just imaged the pitted, fissured flank \u2013 the side of a volcano where lava can erupt from \u2013 of Ascraeus Mons.<\/p>\n

    The volcano is located in the Tharsis region of Mars and was discovered in 1971 by NASA\u2019s Mariner 9 \u2013 the first spacecraft to ever orbit another planet, just ahead of the Soviet Union\u2019s Mars 2. Ascraeus Mons is 18 kilometers high and is just shy of the tallest volcano on Mars \u2013 and in the entire Solar System \u2013 Olympus Mons, which is 25 kilometers high.<\/p>\n

    The image was captured by the orbiter\u2019s High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), which can combine images at two different resolutions and provides 3D imaging to reveal the topography of Mars in color.<\/p>\n

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    The flanks of Ascraeus Mons, as imaged by Mars Express. (Credit: ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin)<\/p>\n

    Mars Express\u2019 image shows many interesting discoveries of the lower southern flank of the volcano, as well as a 70-kilometer patch of collapsed terrain depicting lava flows and tubes, chains of craters, and large fissures.<\/p>\n

    To the right of the image is \u201cwrinkled lava flows,\u201d which meet chains of \u201cpit craters\u201d where strings of circular depressions have combined and coalesced to form troughs.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThese chains and troughs likely form where hidden voids lie below the surface, causing the ground to become unstable and collapse \u2013 a bit like a sinkhole,\u201d ESA said. \u201cThe subsurface voids are thought to be created as the surface layer of a lava flow rapidly cools and hardens; the lava flow beneath then ceases and ebbs away over time, leaving tube-shaped pockets of space lurking several meters below ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The surface to the left of the image shows the \u201csinuous rilles\u201d \u2014 small, snaking channels without rims \u2014 which remain a mystery to scientists. ESA scientists are still unsure how these are formed but believe it may involve flows of lava, ash, water, or all of the three combined.<\/p>\n