When the
Perseverance rover arrives on Mars in 2021, the vehicle will land in Jezero
Crater and head toward a river delta, a destination offering clues about the
planet's habitability.
After studying the region's river, a Stanford University team demonstrated that the Jezero delta is still one of the best places on the Red Planet to search for signs of life.
The Stanford research indicated that river delta deposits within Mars’ Jezero crater formed fast enough to preserve evidence of organics.
Using satellite imagery, the team, led by Stanford professor Mathieu Lapôtre, modeled the amount of time required for the delta's sediment layers to form.
The ancient river on Mars, it turns out, deposited sediment quickly, at least in planetary terms.
Based on the strength of Mars’ gravity, and assuming the Red Planet did not have plants, the scientists estimate that the delta in Jezero crater took at least 20 to 40 years to form. The delta formation, however, was likely discontinuous and spread out across about 400,000 years.
Read the full article here for an in-depth interview with Stanford professor Mathieu Lapôtre as explains how findings from Jezero crater could aid our understanding of life on Mars — and our understanding of how life evolved on Earth.
