New findings reveal that Mars had flowing water more recently than previously thought.

Scientists have long determined that Mars possessed extremely wet conditions during its ancient evolutionary era. However, new observations from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected water systems that revealed clues about lakes and streams from snow melting on the planet, even after 1 billion years.

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According to Sharon Wilson of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Virginia, valleys have been detected, which carried water into the lake basins. There are several lake basins that regularly filled and overflowed which suggest that a considerable amount of water was present within the Martian landscape at the time.

This ancient water system is called the Heart Lake Valley system. Researchers have determined that these ancient valleys filled large lakes and that streams were filled on a seasonal basis. This new evidence also revealed the ancient climate on Mars; that it was cold enough for the streams to be filled with snow and not rain.

Wilson explains that the water flow rate in these valleys is consistent with melting snow runoff. These were not rushing rivers. Instead, the valleys possessed simple drainage patterns that did not develop into deep and complex water systems.

Further analysis of the craters within the ancient valleys also revealed that the Heart Lake system had running water around two to three billion years ago.

Apart from this, similar valley systems were also detected in other regions of Mars, indicating that these freshwater systems were prevalent on the entire planet.

Scientists are still trying to determine how the now dry, dusty planet used to be wet with flowing water. The latest findings can also potentially provide clues about the presence of microbial life on Mars.

This new study has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.