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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Phys.org [phys.org]:

A high-resolution satellite has captured detailed images of a rocky Martian cliff face revealing that it was formed by rivers more than 3.7 billion years ago. That is roughly the same time that life was starting to begin on Earth.
...
The team examined images of taken by NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. The images were taken inside the enormous Hellas impact crater in the southern Martian hemisphere, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system.

A 200-metre-thick stack of layered rocks are visible within the cliff walls, shown in enough detail that Joel and his colleagues could be sure they are sedimentary rocks, formed by running water. The rivers would have continuously shifted their gullies, creating sandbanks.

The presence of sedimentary rock indicates the long term presence of water and boosts the chance life evolved there.

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