Mars Once Had a Lake Filled with Water

It is being speculated that the Gale Crater on Mars was once a lake, filled with water from a number of tributary rivers. It is being estimated that approximately 3.5 billion years ago, Mars had a number of water bodies on its surface. Mission scientists who work for the Curiosity Rover (a project by NASA) made these announcements on 8th December at a news conference.
Caltech planetary scientist, John Grotzinger said at the conference that the idea of a lake on planet Mars is not something new. But now with the help of new pictures, they are in a better position to examine the stacked layers of sediment, which were found near the base of the Mount Sharp, a 5-kilometre tall structure located in the middle of the crater. The patterns, which were found at the base of Mount Sharp, resemble the ones we have on Earth at sites where rivers dump sand before entering a larger water body.
The features of these deposits indicate that they were formed several million years ago. The Curiosity Rover previously helped in determining that the bottom of the Gale Crater was once capable of providing a habitat to micro organisms. Now the scientists are trying to determine that for how long those conditions thrived on the planet. This will help them in concluding whether life on Mars is possible or not. The new images will also help the scientists in solving the mystery of how a mountain like structure was formed in the middle of a lake.