Curiosity Rover Finds New Clues to Mars’ Watery Past

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has discovered lots of evidence of ancient lakes on the Red Planet – and this recent panorama shows intriguing new clues.

Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, is currently exploring a unique feature known as the “Marker Band” in the foothills of Mount Sharp. Rocks in this area show the clearest evidence yet for waves the mission has ever seen: rippled textures that formed billions of years ago, as waves on the surface of a shallow lake stirred up sediment on the lake bottom.

Farther up the mountain, Curiosity can see more evidence of ancient water: wet landslides caused boulders and other debris to slip down into a valley. Curiosity caught a glimpse of this debris from a distance, but the rover's team hopes to get a closer look later in 2023.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/University of Arizona

[modalmixture]

Great way to do a video, panning around a single fascinating image. And a reminder that Curiosity is still doing important work over a decade later.

[TheWehzy]

Im born in the wrong era... Seeing this makes me happy and depressed at the same time. I probably wont even be here anymore when humans finally can live on different planets.. man...

[davebartosh]

Curiosity's been earning it's pay lately. Also recently found a metallic meteorite as well. Some people think these rovers are a waste of money. Over the past TEN YEARS this rover has supplied mankind with a tremendous amount of valuable data that we use to understand not only Mars, but Earth, too.

[sepiae]

I'm starting every day with going through the latest on both the Curiosity and Perseverance raw images pages, and quite often it's a guessing game about the meaning behind of what I see (but once in a while I'm getting it right, as with those ripples). While these are what the commentator called Mt. Sharp's foothills it's amazing how high up Curiosity already is, and still there's clear signs of past water.
Sometimes there are images within the mounting raw image collection that should be seen by more people, the choice of images prepared for the wider masses is quite small.

[TheStockwell]

This is, as ever, amazing. Keep it up. I ❤️ space exploration.

[uprightape]

resolution is incredible. Thank you all so much, JPL.

[EpicRobloxianReal]

Terrific!! Can't wait to see the future of Curiosity, thank you JPL!

[dennisjamieson]

Awesome stuff to see in the later parts of my life at living in my 83rd year.

[workingclass]

Enchanting!!! We can not even imagine what people will know of our cosmos in 50 years time...

[henergynow]

amazing talk, which caught my curiosity.

[TonInter]

Incredible. Thank you for making these videos.

[vasyapupkin]

Greatest mission. Have been tracking it since the launch in 2011

[rafastefanid]

Magnificent!! I am very curious to know about the past of Mars. Thanks for the video, JPL!!

[neilbain]

I was amazed to learn that the atmospheric pressure on Mars (~7mB) is about that for the tripple point of water. The temperature required (0.1C) will be attained regularly on the surface and almost certainly below the surface.

[NovaGazer]

Good luck with your future exploration endeavours! :D
Looking forward to new discoveries!

[Logical]

I always love how confident they tell you something was there 'billions of years ago'. So they come over as smart when they have no clue.

[FritsvanDoorn]

What is the difference that the ripples are water ripples and not sand ripples like in the desert? Thank you.

[thatguysayz]

Excellent job, keep up the good work...I noticed some small triangles on the rock pointing at the other rock on the ground..like a print

[pommemoi]

How do scientists differentiate ripple patterns in rocks as having been caused by water versus, say, by molten lava?

[tredogzs]

Or ... or... there is NO evidence of water at all' huh... yeah, I am thinking that.