Mars was formed 4.5 billion years ago
The Red Planet Was Wet It has long been believed that water played an important role in the early history of Mars. To put our results into a broader context, let’s first consider what “early Mars” means in the context of Mars’ geological time frame, and then consider different ways to find water on Mars. Like Earth, Mars was also formed about 4.5 billion years ago. There are four geological periods in the history of Mars. These are the Amazonian (3 billion years ago), Hesperian (3 billion to 3.7 billion years ago), Noachian (3.7 billion to 4.1 billion years ago) and Pre-Noachian (4.1 billion to about 4.5 billion years ago).
Evidence of water was found on Mars for the first time in 1970.
Evidence of water on Mars was first found in the 1970s, when NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft photographed river valleys on the surface of Mars. Later orbital missions, including Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express, discovered the widespread presence of ‘hydrated clay minerals’ on the surface. This requires water. Martian river valleys and clay minerals are found primarily in the Noachian terrain, which covers about 45 percent of Mars. In addition, the orbiter also detected large flood channels in the Hesperian regions, known as ‘outflow channels’. This indicates the short-term presence of water on the surface, probably from groundwater. Most reports of water on Mars indicate the presence of water in material or areas older than three billion years.
When was water found on Mars?
Recently, not much evidence of frozen liquid water has been found on Mars. But what happened during the Pre-Noachian? When did water first appear on Mars? A glimpse of pre-Noachian Mars. There are three ways to find water on Mars. The first method is to use observations made by spacecraft orbiting the surface. Another approach is to use ground-based observations, such as those made by Mars rovers. The third way is to study Martian meteorites that have fallen on Earth, which we did. In fact, the only pre-Noachian material we have available for study is found in Martian meteorites. Of all the meteorites that hit Earth, some come from our neighboring planet. A small group of these meteorites are believed to have come from an asteroid impact with Mars, consisting of pre-Noachian material.
ocean on mars
It has also been suggested that Mars may have had an early global ocean 4.45 billion years ago. The bigger picture from our study is that magmatic hydrothermal systems were active during the early formation of the Martian surface, 4.45 billion years ago. It’s not clear whether this means water was still on the surface at this time, but we think it’s possible. It is clear that Mars, like Earth, had water on its surface soon after its formation – an essential ingredient for habitability.
