NASA’s Perseverance rover has taken another exciting leap in the quest to understand the Red Planet (Mars). Recent research from the Jezero Crater, once thought to be an ancient lake, reveals that Mars went through several distinct phases of water activity billions of years ago. It means that water once flowed across the surface.

This discovery offers scientists some of the clearest evidence yet that Mars may have once had environments capable of supporting life.

Using its advanced instruments, Perseverance studied rock and soil samples that contain minerals known to form only in watery settings. The patterns within these minerals suggest that a single flood or dry spell didn’t shape Jezero Crater. Instead, it experienced a long series of changes, from flowing water to still lakes, and cycles of evaporation hinting at a dynamic and possibly habitable world in its distant past.

A single flood or dry spell didn’t shape Jezero Crater

A study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets explains that these variations in mineral composition reveal how Mars’s climate evolved. By studying them, scientists can piece together how the planet slowly shifted from a warm, wet environment to the cold and dry desert we see today.

The findings from Perseverance don’t just expand our understanding of Mars’s geological history, but they also set the stage for future missions searching for direct evidence of life. The rover continues to collect and store rock samples that will one day be returned to Earth for deeper analysis.

It’s a small but crucial step toward answering one of humanity’s oldest and most fascinating questions: Was Mars ever alive? For now, we wait, but with every discovery, we get a little closer to the answer.