WASHINGTON: Water from rivers persisted on Mars much later into its history than previously thought, according to a study which found that the rivers on the Red Planet were wider than those on Earth today.
Riverbeds were carved deep into the Martian surface long ago, but the understanding of the climate billions of years ago remains incomplete.
Scientists at the University of Chicago in the US catalogued these rivers to conclude that significant river runoff persisted on Mars later into its history than thought.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, showed that the runoff was intense — rivers on Mars were wider than those on Earth today — and occurred at hundreds of locations on the Red Planet.
This complicates the picture for scientists trying to model the ancient Martian climate, said Edwin Kite, assistant professor at University of Chicago.
“It’s already hard to explain rivers or lakes based on the information we have. This makes a difficult problem even more difficult,” Kite said.
The constraints could be useful in winnowing the many theories researchers have proposed to explain the climate.
Mars is crisscrossed with the distinctive tracks of long-dead rivers.
NASA’s spacecraft have taken photos of hundreds of these rivers from orbit, and when the Mars rover Curiosity landed in 2012, it sent back images of pebbles that were rounded — tumbled for a long time in the bottom of a river.
It is a puzzle why ancient Mars had liquid water, researchers said.
Mars has an extremely thin atmosphere today, and early in the planet’s history, it was also only receiving a third of the sunlight of present-day Earth, which shouldn’t be enough heat to maintain liquid water. (AGENCIES)
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