Using data from the Curiosity rover, the study confirmed Mars was once capable of storing water in lakes for an extended period.Streams and lakes existed on Mars billions of years ago, a new study from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory has found.
Sediment deposited in layers formed the foundation for Mount Sharp, the mountain which exists in the middle of the Gale Crater today.
"Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp," Mars Science Laboratory project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said.
Mr Vasavada said the images showed an abundance of finely laminated mudstones that look like lake deposits.
"Paradoxically, where there is a mountain today there was once a basin, and it was sometimes filled with water," lead author of the report John Grotzinger said.Mudstones indicated the presence of lakes which remained for long periods of time and possibly repeatedly expanded and contracted during hundreds to millions of years.
Last month, it was confirmed liquid water flows on today's Mars, while previous research has suggested there were ancient lakes on Mars.
"What we thought we knew about water on Mars is constantly being put to the test," NASA's Mars Exploration Program lead scientist Michael Meyer said.
"It's clear that the Mars of billions of years ago more closely resembled Earth than it does today.
"Our challenge is to figure out how this more clement Mars was even possible, and what happened to that wetter Mars."
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