NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover found evidence of different climates on the planet occurring several billion years ago as it transitions to a mineral region.
Scientists now have a better idea of what Mars’s climate used to be like, including evidence of dry periods and periods when water flowed on the planet.
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The findings are further evidence of Mars’s former environment being vastly different from the current bare landscape of the “red planet,” according to a news release from NASA last week.
Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, described the findings in a statement in the new release.
“We no longer see the lake deposits that we saw for years lower on Mount Sharp,” Vasavada said. “Instead, we see lots of evidence of drier climates, like dry dunes that occasionally had streams running around them. That’s a big change from the lakes that persisted for perhaps millions of years before.”
The images released show new layers and formations, indicating a period of dryness in Mars’s ancient past.
In the news release, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology said the discoveries only add to the challenges of understanding the climate history of Mars.
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“Making the story richer yet more complicated is the knowledge that there were multiple periods in which groundwater ebbed and flowed over time, leaving a jumble of puzzle pieces for Curiosity’s scientists to assemble into an accurate timeline,” the release said.
The Curiosity rover is approaching 10 years since it landed on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012. The rover went into safety mode on June 7 for two days after overheating within the rover, and NASA said it is still investigating the cause of the temperature problems.
