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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Mars May Have Hosted Potentially Habitable Lake


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A close-up of an image taken by the orbiting HiRISE camera in December 2007 shows large blocks of debris known as megabeccia inside Mars's Holden Crater.

A new study using HiRISE data shows that the debris is surrounded by clay-rich sediments, evidence of an ancient long-standing lake on Mars that might have been habitable, astronomers say.

Image courtesy NASA/JPL/University of Arizona