NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected data confirming the existence of ancient lake sediments on Mars. This is evident from a study published yesterday. This rock is formed as a result of the deposition of sand and clay carried by water in the so-called Jerezo crater.

Previously, through the use of images from space, it was thought that there must have been water on Mars in which microorganisms might have lived. This has now been confirmed using ground-penetrating radar observations from Perseverance.

The results reinforce what previous studies have long suggested: that cold, dry, lifeless Mars was once warm, wet, and perhaps habitable for humans.

In 2022, the rover conducted several scans as it moved across the crater floor toward a nearby area. From space, this area looks like dry river deltas like those on Earth, according to joint research conducted by the Universities of California and Oslo.

Soundings from the rover’s RIMFAX radar instrument allowed scientists to peer underground. This gave them a cross-section of rock layers up to 20 meters deep.

These layers have provided scientists with evidence that the river once ran toward the crater, just as lakes do on Earth. Scientists are looking forward to conducting an in-depth investigation of the sediments in the crater, which are believed to have formed about three billion years ago.

In 2022, the Perseverance rover surprised scientists after analyzing soil samples. It appears that the soil of the Red Planet at the research site is composed differently than expected.

Because there was water in this area 3.5 billion years ago, researchers suspected that the soil here would be composed of sediments. Instead, Persevere encountered lava rocks.

However, the results of the two studies do not necessarily contradict each other. As for the volcanic rocks, they showed signs of change from exposure to water. Scientists predicted in 2022 that the sediments in those places may have been eroded.

Radar measurements reported yesterday already show that there are signs of erosion before and after the formation of sediment layers on the western side of the crater. According to one scientist, this is evidence of a complex geological history.