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March 18, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Perseverance Mars rover discovers even older lost rivers at Jezero Crater<\/p>\n By plying its ground-penetrating radar in the depths of Mars\u2019s Jezero Crater, this rover has found even older deltas buried beneath those seen on the surface from space<\/p>\n By Joseph Howlett edited by Lee Billings<\/span><\/p>\n Jezero Crater is a hot spot for scientists seeking evidence of past life on Mars, thanks to this site\u2019s ancient river deltas that could contain preserved biosignatures.<\/p>\n NASA\/JPL\/JHUAPL\/MSSS\/Brown University<\/p>\n The latest evidence that Mars was once a warmer, wetter world comes from a surprising place\u2014the hidden subsurface depths of Jezero Crater\u2014rather than its surface, which NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has explored for the past five years. The site of a vast, dried-up lake, Jezero also hosts ancient river deltas. Laid down by flowing water as early as 3.7 billion years ago, these deltas are so sprawling that they can be seen from orbit. Now, however, Perseverance\u2019s ground-penetrating radar has found signs of an even older river-and-delta system at Jezero that is buried deep beneath the surface.<\/p>\n Published today in the journal Science Advances, the findings suggest the Red Planet\u2019s window of habitability stretches even further back in time than many scientists had imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cIt extends the window of fluvial deposition on Mars,\u201d says Emily Cardarelli, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cOn Earth those conditions produce minerals that can preserve fossils.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Jezero is the crash site of an asteroid that slammed into Mars\u2019s surface almost four billion years ago. NASA chose it as Perseverance\u2019s exploration zone because it has a wealth of fluvial features that hint that the crater was once ripe for life\u2014and for preserving life\u2019s telltale traces in stone. The new study relies on data from 78 traverses of the area from September 2023 to February 2024.<\/p>\n The rover used its radar capabilities to study layers of sediment buried more than 35 meters below ground\u2014nearly twice as deep as it had previously probed\u2014where it registered echoes of even older river-carved slopes and sinuous, meandering channels. These subsurface features, the researchers say, formed as early as 4.2 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years before the water-washed terrain that Perseverance has been studying on the surface. That means there were multiple sustained periods of water flow in the crater\u2019s history\u2014multiple opportunities scattered across Jezero\u2019s deep past in which it might have harbored life.<\/p>\n Perseverance used its ground-penetrating radar to chart evidence of what might be a 4.2-billion-year-old river delta buried beneath Jezero Crater\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n NASA\/JPL\/UCLA\/UiO\/ETH Zurich<\/p>\n The result also reinforces that Mars is now a planet that is almost frozen in time, with lands that are far more undisturbed than any on Earth. \u201cThe fact that we have this record of this age is remarkable,\u201d Cardarelli says. On Earth, rocks of a similar age lost any clear signature of ancient rivers long ago. \u201cThey\u2019ve been heated, they\u2019ve been squished, and they\u2019ve been altered by water,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019ve had a rough time.<\/p>\n With this more intact geological record, astrobiologists hope Mars can yield not only the first-ever smoking-gun proof of extraterrestrial life but also clearer data on how that life emerged in the first place. This question, it turns out, could be of equal importance for understanding life\u2019s origins on Earth as well: circumstantial evidence suggests that ancient asteroid impacts much like the one that carved out Jezero Crater could have also exported any early Martian life to our own world.<\/p>\n The newfound buried river delta \u201cis very clear evidence for a long duration of activity,\u201d says Jack Mustard, a planetary scientist at Brown University, who has extensively studied Jezero Crater. \u201cAnd that\u2019s very exciting to have.\u201d Mustard says the distinct delta beneath the soil isn\u2019t surprising because sporadic periods of flow are common in the formation of rivers and lakes. \u201cIf you were to ask someone how the Mississippi Delta formed,\u201d he says, \u201cyou would see multiple episodes of overlapping deltas.\u201d<\/p>\n Cardarelli says that we haven\u2019t heard the last about Jezero from Perseverance. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to say about this particular area\u2014and other areas within the crater,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re still digesting all our data.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 18, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA\u2019s Perseverance Mars rover discovers even older lost rivers at Jezero Crater By plying its ground-penetrating radar in the depths of Mars\u2019s Jezero Crater, this rover has found even older deltas buried beneath those seen on the surface from space By Joseph Howlett edited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[13928,4406,23898,96,369,1883,7984,20027,4449,13275],"class_list":{"0":"post-47099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-crater","9":"tag-discovers","10":"tag-jezero","11":"tag-lost","12":"tag-mars","13":"tag-nasas","14":"tag-older","15":"tag-perseverance","16":"tag-rivers","17":"tag-rover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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