Scientists Just Scanned Pale Rocks on Mars That May Have Huge Implications

The latest evidence suggests that Mars used to be a wet world covered in oceans, with astronomers uncovering not just icy remnants of this period, but signs of entire reservoirs of liquid water still lurking beneath the planet's arid surface. But we're still far from having a complete picture of what the Martian climate looked like billions of years ago, before these oceans dried up. Now, however, the chance discovery of pale yet unremarkable looking rocks by NASA's Perseverance rover suggest that the Red Planet was not only wet, but much warmer than once believed, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. "These rocks are very different from anything we've seen on Mars before," coauthor Roger Wiens, professor of Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences at Purdue University, said in a statement. "They're enigmas." It's a discovery long in the making. The rocks, in the form of pebbles, were actually spotted the day that the Perseverance ... Read full article.