<ul data-eligibleForWebStory="false"><li>Discovery of thousands of miles of ancient riverbeds in the heavily cratered southern highlands of Mars indicates the planet was once much wetter than previously believed.</li><li>The riverbeds, believed to be over 3 billion years old, were revealed in high-resolution images, showing networks of rivers stretching for more than 100 miles in some areas, likely replenished by regular precipitation.</li><li>Researchers focused on Noachis Terra, one of the oldest terrains on Mars, using high-resolution images from NASA's Mars orbiters to identify geological features like fluvial sinuous ridges, indicating an enduring presence of water about 3.7 billion years ago.</li><li>The findings challenge previous assumptions about the lack of evidence for water on Mars in some regions and suggest that Mars was once a far wetter world before becoming the arid planet it is today, with the possibility of hidden water reservoirs deep beneath the surface.</li></ul>

Discovery of ancient riverbeds suggests Mars once wetter than thought

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