When the Curiosity rover startle return picture from the Gale Crater on Mars , scientist were middling surprised to find that there appeared to be pebbles on the ground , in all likelihood transported and molded by an ancient river . A raw study has now model the extent of that river in singular point , thanks to the shape of the pebble .
The research , published in the journalNature Communicationsand partially supported by the National Science Foundation , created a mathematical model based on pebbles on Earth , using geometry to ferment out how their erode shape arise as they were drop back along the river bed . apply that model to Gale Crater , the scientists found it could explain the river that flow there ground on the geometry of Martian pebble .
The study found that pebbles in Gale Crater , which is 140 kilometers ( 90 miles ) wide , were transport 50 kilometre ( 30 mile ) by a river 3 billion eld ago from a source on the crater paries . This river would have flowed at about 1 meter ( 3 foot ) per second and it would have been ten of centimeters deep . This is one of the first and most elaborated analysis ever on what a Martian river may have looked like .
“ Just by wait at the form , you could deduce the history of the pebbles , ” co - author on the study Gabor Domokos from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics told IFLScience . “ This paper is about Martian pebble , but the same could be done in principle on many other planets . ”
Some of the rounded pebble analysed in the study can be seen here . NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS .
The enquiry relied not just on simulacrum of rounded pebble taken by Curiosity , but also on data provided by some of the instruments on board . This allow scientists to deduct that some of the pebbles were made of basaltic rock’n’roll , and by comparing those to similar stone on Earth , they could model what sort of river would have eroded the pebbles into their shape .
“ This form of channel would be something you could stand in , it would have been a brisk stream , not one that would pick apart you over , it would just be push the small pebbles that were roll along , ” conscientious objector - author Douglas Jerolmack from the University of Pennsylvania also told IFLScience .
The research worker said the same flesh and geometry of the pebble , and the mode they had been deposited , was not potential to be the effect of other summons such as wind . They summate that it was unlikely that there were bigger river in Gale Crater than this , base on what they had seen so far , as these were the largest pebbles spotted – larger rivers would be able-bodied to enrapture big rock .
Interestingly , this method of studying the conformation of the pebbles to infer how they were moved by a river could be give to other humanity , not just Mars . “ I think the undecomposed bet is probably [ Saturn ’s moon ] Titan , ” said Jerolmack . “ In footing of promise for where we might find another potential rival channel , it would be Titan , where we have one – and only one – image of very rounded pebbles there [ from the Huygens lander in 2005 ] . That ’s the mouth of what look like a river . ”
For now , Mars is the focus . And with other recent research qualify alake in Gale Crater , it continues to come along that the Red Planet was once wetter and more Earth - same thanit is today .
Image in textual matter : Our exclusive picture from the surface of Titan , take by the Huygens lander on 10 April 2025 . NASA / ESA .
