NASA's Curiosity rover finds 'ancient oasis' on Mars' Gale Crater

While water has been found on moon by Chandrayaan, bringing closer dream of colonisation on moon, NASA has shifted its focus to red planet. Earlier on Monday, NASA's Mars rover 'Curiosity' had found traces of ponds previously dotting Gale Crater on Mars, as shared by NASA. Curiosity which landed on Mars in 2012 has been exploring 100-mile-wide (150-kilometer-wide) ancient basin of Gale Crater since n. NASA states this discovery indicates planet's drying climate.

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Lakes on Mars?

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What has Curiosity found on Mars?

As explained in NASA press release, scientists are currently trying to unearth what MArs looked like 3.5 billion years ago. Curiosity's latest discovery suggests that streams might have laced crater's walls, running toward its base, states NASA. Scientists have interpreted that rocks enriched in mineral salts discovered by rover as evidence of shallow briny ponds may have existed on Mars before drying up. study which has been in a Nature Geoscience paper predicts that waterways overflowed and n dried up on Mars - a cycle that probably repeated itself numerous times over millions of years.

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What is its significance?

Scientists state that long-lost presence of an oasis on Mars, indicates climate fluctuations as Martian environment transitioned from a wetter one to freezing desert it is today. y state that Curiosity is headed towards a region called "sulfate-bearing unit," which is expected to have formed in an even drier environment. This will help scientists to understand how long this transition took and when exactly it occurred. se findings also point out that Earth and Mars were similar in ir early days.

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What is its future scope?

team plans to drive more inclined layers in distant sulfate-bearing unit. In coming years, NASA states that it will investigate its many rock structures. If y formed in drier conditions that persisted for a long period, that might mean that clay-bearing unit represents an in-between st - a gateway to a different era in Gale Crater's watery history, states NASA. team is currently running studying its findings to unearth more details of red planet.