A NASA rover exploring the foothills of a Martian mountain has discovered rippled rocks, providing scientists the clearest proof but of historic water waves on the Crimson Planet.
Curiosity, a car-size robotic that has been rumbling over Mars for a decade, took pictures of the peculiar geology in mid-December(Opens in a brand new tab). The rocks are just like the undulating patterns one may discover when the tide reels the ocean again from a seashore, revealing wobbly tracks on the quickly uncovered sand.
Mission scientists say waves of water lapping on the floor of a shallow lake created these grooves, maybe billions of years in the past. The motion on prime churned up sediment from the underside, they believe, forming the combed texture.
