Yesterday NASA presented the analyzes of the data collected by the Mars Rover Curiosity in Gale Crater. They indicate that in ancient times it was a lake and that Mount Sharp is the result of progressive sediment deposits in the lake bed in the course of tens of millions of years. This could have happened only if Mars maintained a thick atmosphere with certain levels of temperature and humidity for longer than scientists thought.

Various discoveries made during the Mars Rover Curiosity mission had already made scientists think that on Mars there were for a time conditions favorable to support life. The data gathered in Gale Crater are making the matter much more interesting but also more complicated to explain.

So far, the idea was that there was a period around 4 billion years ago on Mars where there could be liquid water and then rivers, lakes and perhaps even seas. It seemed that this had been a transient situation, a time short in geological and ecological terms in the history of the Red Planet. The discoveries made at Gale Crater could radically change this idea.

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The data collected by the Mars Rover Curiosity show a stratification of rocks indicating the various changes in the ecology of the area. The various layers show an alternation between lake, river and wind deposits. This means that there was a repeated filling and later evaporations of a lake in the course of tens of millions of years.

Even from a geological and ecological point of view, that’s a long time, longer than scientists thought. The information accumulated by the Mars Rover Curiosity require the creation of new climate models that explain how it was possible to have liquid water for so long.

The next analyzes of rocks in Gale Crater and Mount Sharp will be more important than ever. The Mars Rover Curiosity is now at the base of Mount Sharp and is slowly climbing. The results may be crucial to understand the evolution of the climate on Mars in the early stages of its life and its ecological changes as well. An environment like that ancient lake could really have been the cradle for Martian life.

NASA has prepared a video with a summary of the findings regarding Gale Crater and Mount Sharp.