Scientists have discovered traces of waves in a frost-free lake on Mars.

The Gale Crater on Mars may have once been a lake. In any case, it has preserved numerous signs of water for billions of years, which the Curiosity rover has been discovering for over a decade. Recently, in its latest images, two more unusual features were identified—wavy "ribbed" structures that planetary scientists recognized as traces left by water that once flowed within the crater.

2025-01-18 10:00:33https://naked-science.ru/article/astronomy/na-marse-nashli-sledy-vol

Upon careful examination of the Solar System, it becomes evident that Mars must have had an ocean in its past: a thick layer of ice is suspected to exist within the overwhelming majority of rocky celestial bodies in the outer Solar System, where it is correspondingly cold. Mars, while located on the edge, is still within the so-called habitable zone — at an optimal distance from the Sun where water would not evaporate but would not completely freeze either.

Why the Red Planet was unfortunate is the subject of numerous studies. One hypothesis suggests that it is not massive enough to retain an atmosphere and ocean due to gravity for an extended period. Researchers also propose that the issue lies in Mars' core, which can be said to produce almost no magnetic field. It appears that initially, it was quite strong but quickly diminished almost to nothing. This means that the Red Planet rapidly lost a reliable invisible shield against solar and galactic radiation, which began to actively bombard the atmosphere and "blow" it into interplanetary space.

Nevertheless, it remains unclear what the main cause of the disappearance of a full-fledged Martian hydrosphere was. There is a theory that a vast amount of water did not actually "escape," but rather sank into the planet's interior: water molecules "integrated" into the mineral structure and thus became "conserved."

To clarify this question, planetary scientists need to understand how long the initial abundance of water continued. There is certainty that about four billion years ago, Mars was indeed an oasis, and three and a half billion years ago, it likely was as well, but after that, a decline probably began.

In a recent article for the publication Science Advances, researchers studying the ancient Martian climate from the USA, France, and the UK explained that the very fact of the initial presence of a water-rich environment on Mars is generally accepted. However, there is no complete consensus on the form that all this Martian water existed in: it is possible that it was covered by ice.

This is why the recent findings of the Curiosity rover are particularly interesting. Recall that since 2012, it has been traversing the edge of the 154-kilometer Gale Crater near the planet's equator. In the images obtained from the device, scientists observed extremely unusual structures that appear to be something layered.

In fact, this is a ripple created by wind and water: planetary scientists modeled its formation and discovered that the wind stirred the surface of a standing body of water, and the resulting waves gradually created such "patterns" on the bottom.

It is presumed that the body of water was shallow and standing — less than two meters deep. Since ancient times, the Martian atmosphere was quite dense, so no particularly strong wind was needed to create such waves. As the researchers emphasized, in any case, this "ripple" confirms that in the distant past, Mars had open bodies of water, meaning not covered by ice.