![]() Earth has vast carbonate deposits in the form of limestone. The double impact has now exposed the minerals. Later the deposits of carbonate would have been buried. At that time, carbonates would have formed from water and the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. It is supposed that billions of years ago Mars was much warmer and wetter. Both of these minerals form in wet environments. The carbonates were found near the clay minerals. Earlier, the instrument had detected clay minerals. They were found with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Carbonates of these kinds only form when there is much water. These minerals represent evidence that Mars once had a thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere with abundant moisture. ![]() The impact on the rim exposed material that had been dug up from the impact that created Huygens. An excellent group of these channels is shown in the picture below from the rim of Huygens taken with THEMIS.Ĭarbonates (calcium or iron carbonates) were discovered in a crater on the rim of Huygens. Simple organisms may have once lived where water once was. The existence of these channels is strong evidence that much water once flowed on the surface of the planet. The Elzeviers published his first book on hyperbolae, ellipses, and circles in 1651. Huygens is also known as the inventor of the pendulum clock. His research included the rings of Saturn and the discovery of the moon Titan. Scientists were delighted to see branched channels in pictures taken with spacecraft that were sent in orbit around Mars. After his studies in mathematics at Leiden University, he developed himself into an important astronomer. The crater is approximately 467.25 km (290.34 mi) in diameter and can be found at 304.42°W 13.88°S, in the Iapygia quadrangle. It is the fifth largest recognizable impact crater on Mars after Utopia, Hellas, Argyre, and Isidis, and the largest one with a near intact rim. Huygens is an impact crater on Mars named in honour of the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens.
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