{"id":546880,"date":"2026-09-22T02:54:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T16:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=1049028"},"modified":"2026-09-22T02:54:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T16:54:43","slug":"nasa-discovery-reveals-complex-water-systems-on-early-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=546880","title":{"rendered":"NASA Discovery Reveals Complex Water Systems on Early Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

5 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>
\n
The Perseverance rover captured the data used in this panorama of the \u201cMargin Unit,\u201d a geologic area that hugs the inner edge of Jezero Crater\u2019s rim, between Oct. 8 and Oct. 16, 2023.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover reached the inner edge of Mars\u2019 Jezero Crater in September 2023, mission scientists were surprised by what they found. Called the \u201cMargin Unit,\u201d the geologic area stretches along the shoreline of an ancient Martian lake, so they expected sedimentary rocks, which would have formed as layers of sand piled on top of each other over millennia. Composed of clay and silt, sedimentary rocks on Earth are good at preserving past microbial life. The scientists were especially intrigued by strong signals of carbonate minerals detected by Mars orbiters. On Earth, carbonates frequently form in shallow ocean and lake environments capable of supporting life.  <\/p>\n

Instead, the rover team found igneous rock, which can form deep underground from magma or from volcanic activity at the surface. Igneous rocks are excellent record-keepers, particularly because mineral crystals within them preserve details about the precise moment they formed. In this case, they preserved an astonishingly complex record of water activity on early Mars. In fact, these rocks showed signs of having interacted with water on at least three separate occasions, with each encounter further altering their chemistry and appearance. The findings were published<\/a> Monday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. <\/p>\n

The instrument behind the findings is SuperCam, which perches on the rover\u2019s mast and determines the mineralogy of geologic features based on the light they reflect. When the science team spots an intriguing rock, they can send commands for SuperCam to fire its laser up to 21 feet (6.5 meters) away. The spectrum of the resulting plasma reveals the target\u2019s chemistry. Perseverance has analyzed more than 185 bedrock targets across the unit this way. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we arrived at the Margin Unit, the main hypothesis \u2014 derived from orbital observations \u2014 was that the carbonate seen from orbit formed from interaction with the lake that existed in Jezero Crater,\u201d said Candice Bedford, a research scientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cBut now we know that this location became a sort of crossroads for aqueous systems. The Margin Unit findings are important because Jezero Crater sits inside one of the largest exposures of carbonate on Mars, so what we learn here reaches well beyond this crater.\u201d <\/p>\n

Slow-cooling underground<\/strong> <\/h2>\n

Perseverance explored the Margin Unit across approximately 870 feet (265 meters) of elevation. At higher elevations, it found rock that was coarse-grained and crystalline \u2014 hallmarks of the mineral olivine \u2014 with almost no sign that water had ever touched it. Made of magnesium and iron, the area\u2019s olivine unit formed in a body of magma deep underground, cooling slowly enough for its grains to grow large, and reached the surface only after the ground above it eroded away. Lower in the unit, on the lakebed, the rock looks transformed, as the olivine grains were fractured with silica between them. <\/p>\n

Carbonate and silica minerals are an important signpost in the search for ancient life. When water interacts with olivine on Earth, the reaction can release hydrogen, which can be a food source for some microbes, and it leaves behind carbonate and silica, two minerals that lock in traces of the past existence of those microbes. <\/p>\n

Multiple episodes<\/strong> <\/h2>\n

The Perseverance team can determine the sequence of the Margin Unit\u2019s interactions with water, but not their age. On the first occasion water reached the rocks of the Margin Unit, carbon-dioxide-rich groundwater reacted with olivine, resulting in ridges of carbonate that run through the fractures in bedrock at low elevations. Today, these carbonate-filled fractures are left standing as the softer rock around them wears away.  <\/p>\n

The second time water reached the rocks may have been related to the lake that once existed in the crater. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the Margin Unit rocks also contain silica,\u201d said Eleni Ravanis, a planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a coauthor of the study. \u201cTurning olivine into carbonate can leave silica behind, and we see more of that silica in rocks that sat below the water line.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last came a water event that generated mineral veins at one location in the eastern part of the Margin Unit, about 10 inches (25 centimeters) thick, creating minerals like calcium sulfate and fluorite. Finding fluorite is an important clue because it typically forms when hot water circulates through volcanic rocks, revealing that this area experienced a later, heated underground-water event. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is one thing I have learned after 10 years working with Mars rovers, it is that Mars constantly throws surprises at you,\u201d said Bedford. \u201cIt is very rare that things are as we expect them to be from orbital data. I hope this work helps reshape how scientists view the history of water in Jezero Crater and across Mars. Ultimately, I hope it helps planetary scientists reconstruct the changing climate and habitability of early Mars.\u201d <\/p>\n

More about Perseverance<\/strong> <\/h2>\n

A key objective of Perseverance\u2019s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover characterizes the planet\u2019s geology and past climate and collects and stores Martian rock and regolith. <\/p>\n

Managed for NASA by Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA\u2019s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. SuperCam is co-led by Purdue University in Indiana, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and IRAP (Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology) and CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) in Toulouse, France. <\/p>\n

For more about Perseverance: <\/p>\n

https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/mars-2020-perseverance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

-end-<\/p>\n

\n

2026-062<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Share<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n