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What is known about the unusual find on Mars and how it may affect our ideas about this planet
It is noted that the structure itself, which looks like a "smiley face", is the remains of an ancient lake that dried up more than one billion years ago.
However, according to scientists, these deposits may contain signs of life.
On September 7, the ESA released an image that looks like the iconic virtual smiley face, but is actually a chloride salt deposit with a pair of crater eyes.
It is emphasized that in the vast majority of cases such deposits cannot be distinguished from the surface of Mars, however, observation using infrared cameras, similar to those installed on the ExoMars orbiter, allows you to see salt deposits in the pink or violet spectrum.
The photo was taken as part of a study, published August 3, in the journal Scientific Data.
Researchers have managed to create the first reliable catalog of chloride salt deposits on Mars using images taken by the ExoMars Orbiter.
In total, scientists managed to discover 965 different deposits that are located all over the surface of Mars.
Their sizes ranged from 300 to 3 thousand meters wide.
The researchers themselves explain that these deposits represent very important information, as they are able to provide optimal conditions for biological activity and preservation.
Mars once had many water sources, including lakes, rivers, and shallow oceans. However, about 2-3 billion years ago, large-scale climatic changes and the loss of a permanent atmosphere led to the drying up of water.
This is likely due to the loss of Mars' magnetic field, which allowed the solar wind to gradually scrape away much of the planet's atmosphere and eventually caused most of the liquid water to freeze or evaporate into space.
Scientists note that in some places salt deposits are the only evidence that there was once water here.
According to researchers, the reduction of lakes on Mars and the disappearance of water led to a significant increase in its salinity level.
Scientists believe that the last remnants of salty water on the Red Planet could be the last refuge for extremophile microbes that could survive climate change on the planet.
Their remains accumulated in these sediments when the water finally dried up, astronomers believe.
The salts may also have helped preserve evidence of these extinct life forms for billions of years.
What is known about the probable presence of large amounts of water on Mars
Recent major discoveries also hint that Mars now has much more water than we first thought, rekindling hopes of finding living microbial Martians on the Red Planet in the future.
In June of this year, astronomers announced the discovery on Mars of at least 150 water frosts on the tops of some of the highest volcanoes on Mars.
Scientists also suggest that a huge hidden ocean may be hiding under the surface of the Red Planet.
