Signs of ancient ocean discovered on Mars

Mars may have once been home to a large northern body of water that experienced sea-level rise consistent with an extended warm and wet climate, not the harsh, frozen landscape it is today, per a new peer-reviewed study.

💧 Background: In 2008, NASA announced that its Phoenix Mars lander had confirmed the existence of small amounts of frozen water on the red planet. In the years since, scientists have discovered evidence pointing to the past presence of large bodies of liquid water on Mars.

🪐 In this most-recent study… a team of scientists charted out more than 4,000 miles of ridges – identified through numerous satellite images – that appear to have been carved out by a large body of water ~3.5 billion years ago, in a manner similar to natural formations on Earth.

• “One of the most significant points here is that the existence of an ocean of this size means a higher potential for life," said Benjamin Cardenas, a geoscientist from Pennsylvania State University and the study’s lead author.

📝 Bottom line: We're seeing an increasing number of signs that water was once abundant on Mars. But as for life? We’ll just have to keep looking👽👀.