River-worn pebbles discovered on Mars

While the world celebrates the signs of flowing water on Mars, researchers estimate that the Martian pebbles travelled roughly 50 km from their source, supporting the idea that Mars once had an extensive river system and conditions that could harbour life.

Whereas information about discovering proof of water on Mars has dominated the media in latest weeks, analysis on different elements of the Pink Planet have additionally been launched that would simply as effectively be as large of a discovery as the previous.

Study co-author Gábor Domokos, an applied mathematician at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, expressed in a statement today (Oct. 13) that an object’s shape can describe a lot.

NASA’s Curiosity rover found the Martian stones in close proximity of its landing point at the Gale Crater back in 2013. Hence, the University of Pennsylvania research team can not help but wonder whether this river that once flowed on Mars might not have harbored primitive life forms too.

By the usage of a mathematical mannequin, the Pennsylvania scientists have been in a position to decide how blocky rocks change into smoother and rounder as elements of them start to be chipped off due to erosion. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania spotted round and smooth pebbles from the images, suggesting that there could be a river that once carried these rocks. To examine their model, the researchers rolled fragments of limestone in a barrel and documented the alterations in their shape and mass. They established that the pattern of changes in the rocks thoroughly trailed their models.

Studying rivers on Mars is useful for a number of reasons.

Jerolmack mentioned they took observe of enormous, angular rock formations that seem to interrupt off from the partitions of the river positioned on the headwaters, after which they proceeded with learning the rocks discovered downstream. The scientists again found that the trend of changes in these rocks closely followed their model.

“Every few hundred meters we would pull thousands of rocks out and take images of their silhouette and record their weight”.

Finally they performed similar analysis of sediment from an alluvial fan at the mouth of a canyon in New Mexico.

The findings of the study can also be used by scientists to better understand how rocks, such as gold, in Earth, are transported from the source.

In short, they have calculated the length of a portion of the ancient Martian river by looking at the pebbles photographed by the Curiosity land rover.

“Sand grains in air being moved by the wind collide with each other and the ground, and the theory predicts that they should do it in exactly the same way pebbles in a river do”.

Domokos said that their study is the first of its kind to attempt to identify the history of an object based exclusively on its shape.

Considering the reduced gravity on Mars, which is around 40 percent less compared to Earth’s own gravity, the team found that the rounded stones had traveled an estimated 50 milometers, or 30 miles, from the their place of origin, which is believed to be the Gale Crater’s northern rim.

Prof Jerolmack added: “Now we have a new tool we can use to help reconstruct ancient environments on Earth, Mars and other planetary bodies where rivers are found such as Titan”.