New Images Suggest More Recent Lakes on Mars
Image of a channel between putative lakes from the Context Camera (CTX) onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Modern Mars is frigid and dry, but new evidence suggests that in some locations on the equator there may have been lakes as recently as 3 billion years ago.
Researchers from Imperial College London and University College London studied images from the context camera (CTX) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of several flat-floored depressions in Ares Vallis, near the martian equator.
Previously these depressions were thought to be due to the collapse of the surface as ground ice sublimated directly to gas, but CTX images reveal small channels connecting the depressions, suggesting that water flowed between them. Similar features can be found in "thermokarst" landscapes in Alaska and elsewhere, where permafrost is melting to create lakes and streams.
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