NASA's Mars rover sends back surprising images

The Perseverance rover has captured new images revealing geological evidence of a fast-flowing river that once poured into Mars' Jezero Crater.

About a year ago, NASA's rover began studying a fan-shaped deposit 250 meters high that may be the remains of an ancient river delta, CNN reported on May 18.

Image sent back to Earth by NASA's Perseverance rover. (Photo: NASA).

Curved layers of sediment suggest that flowing water appears to have shaped them, and new images taken by the rover suggest it may be a deeper, faster-flowing river than scientists had predicted.

Perseverance's latest findings, captured in two mosaic images, show rows of wavy sedimentary rocks with remnants of what NASA calls 'cobblestones and coarse sediment grains'.

'That suggests a high-energy river, transporting and carrying a lot of debris,' said Libby Ives, a researcher at NASA's JPL, which operates the Perseverance rover.

Ives said the stronger the water flow, the easier it can move larger pieces of material.

Meanwhile, Katie Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said rivers likely carried large rocks and debris from other regions of Mars to Jezero Crater.

This is the first time scientists have explored an environment like this on Mars.

Perseverance began exploring remnants of the environment inside Jezero Crater — which now resembles a dried-up lakebed — after landing on Mars in February 2021.

Scientists have long been curious about the diverse types of waterways that existed on Mars more than 3 billion years ago, when the planet was warmer and wetter.