![\"The](\"https:\/\/twistedsifter.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load-0.7\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" "\\"Ancient")
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ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin<\/p>\n
Back in 2003, the European Space Agency\u2019s Mars Express mission launched, with its ultimate aim the search for surface water on Mars.<\/p>\n
And over the course of the mission, it has been successful in detecting evidence of past water on the Red Planet, as well as detailing the atmospheric composition, and some fascinating features on the planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Mars Express has been central to the understanding of a fascinating area of Martian terrain known as the Deuteronilus Cavus depression.<\/p>\n
And according to a new statement<\/a> from the German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Zentrum f\u00fcr Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), this depression could tell us more about Mars\u2019s history than initially meets the eye.<\/p>\n ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the Deuteronilus Cavus depression was once a mere crater, most likely created after being hit by an asteroid between 3.7 to 3.9 billion years ago.<\/p>\n In the billions of years since, weather and geology have taken their toll on the crater, eventually eroding and evolving it into the 120-kilometer wide depression that we know today.<\/p>\n And most fascinatingly for researchers, must of this appears to have happened as a result of water and ice.<\/p>\n The source of this? Most likely rivers and glaciers that formed billions of years ago, eroding areas of the crater, making it much wider while also leaving the flow patterns that scientists used to make their conclusions, in their wake.<\/p>\n ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin<\/p>\n At the heart of the depression, images have allowed scientists to identify dark sand that is telling of another aspect of the planet\u2019s unique geology.<\/p>\n This sand is volcanic, with clay minerals (made of volcanic ash mixed with water) present too, telling a story of a planet that once had both active volcanoes and water on its surface, with both crucial to the shaping of the Martian terrain that we can see and study today.<\/p>\n With newly clear and compelling evidence of historic groundwater on Mars, scientists are closer in their quest to truly understanding Mars and its conditions, including whether life ever existed on our neighboring planet, which sits just inside the Goldilocks Zone, suggesting that life was or is possible there, theoretically at least.<\/p>\n Though just one small part of the planet\u2019s surface, the Mars Express images of the Deuteronilus Cavus depression, are crucial to furthering and cementing this understanding.<\/p>\n If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious \u201cpyramids\u201d discovered in Antarctica. What are they?<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\tCategories: NATURE\/SPACE<\/a>, SCI\/TECH<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tags: \u00b7 Deuteronilus Cavus depression<\/a>, esa<\/a>, European Space Agency<\/a>, life in space<\/a>, mars<\/a>, mars express<\/a>, mars mission<\/a>, science<\/a>, single topic<\/a>, space<\/a>, space exploration<\/a>, space travel<\/a>, surface water on mars<\/a>, top<\/a>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin Back in 2003, the European Space Agency\u2019s Mars Express mission launched, with its ultimate aim the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,52809,11029,11030,52810,1845,52811,52812,66,14091,306,798,35678,52813,1060],"class_list":["post-89278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-deuteronilus-cavus-depression","tag-esa","tag-european-space-agency","tag-life-in-space","tag-mars","tag-mars-express","tag-mars-mission","tag-science","tag-single-topic","tag-space","tag-space-exploration","tag-space-travel","tag-surface-water-on-mars","tag-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}