Abroad: Images taken by the Perseverance robot allow scientists to look back at what happened on Mars billions of years ago. The Jezero crater, the site of robotic exploration on Mars, was once a lake more than 3.7 billion years ago. A small river flows into a lake, sometimes causing a great flood, and it can carry large boulders into the lake. These large boulders are still standing today.
Recent news shows the importance of sending robots to explore the surface of Mars. Previous satellite imagery shows that it resembles a delta on Earth. Pictures of the Perseverance robot show clear evidence of the delta's presence. These images show sediments that are more likely to be formed by water flow than flat surfaces, even those that can be caused by wind or other processes.
The upper reaches of the delta consist of large boulders up to 1 m wide, likely weighing several tons. Due to their location in the upper layers of the sediment, they should source outside the pit area. Flooding of up to 9 meters per second can pull rocks in. The fact that large boulders sit on a fine layer of sloping sediment indicates that the lake is relatively calm until it is hit by a flood attack before drying up.
After billions of years, wind erosion has dried up the bottom of lakes and deltas. While the cause of climate change remains unknown, the rocks may tell stories that are part of Mars about why the planet's climate changes from hot and humid to cold and dry.
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