Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website about nature, politics, science, health and travel.
Even more evidence of liquid water on Mars has been discovered by the European space probe in the form of thousands of gallons of frost in the calderas of Martian volcanoes.
These patches of water frost have been described as “significant” by an international astronomy team after they were identified on volcanoes in the Tharsis region.
They say their discovery is described in the journal Nature Geoscienceit challenges previous assumptions about the climate on Mars and is a major breakthrough in the search for life forms on other planets.
A separate discovery by another probe revealed another volcanic feature on Mars as a potential goldmine of knowledge about the planet. A series of mysterious holes about 10 feet in diameter that were recently re-examined are believed to be skylights — where Martian regolith collapsed into a lava tube.
The images were taken by the Univ. from Arizona’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or 2022 HiRISE camera, but when one of them appeared in the image of the day, it reignited speculation about the origin of the mysterious holes found on the Arsia Mons volcano – also in the Tharsis region.
Freezing to freezing
150,000 tons of water exchange between the surface of Olympus Mons and the atmosphere every day during cold periods – the equivalent of around 60 Olympic swimming pools.
This is possible because Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system and rises 3 times the height of Mount Everest and is as wide as France from leeward to windward.
A study discovered by the Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) aboard the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter. The study suggests that the frost is only present for a few hours after sunrise before it evaporates in the sunlight.
“We thought it was unlikely that frost would form around the equator of Mars because the mix of sunlight and a thin atmosphere keeps temperatures relatively high during the day both on the surface and at the top of the mountain – unlike what we see on Earth, where you would they might have expected to see frosty peaks,” said study leader Dr. Adomas Valantinas of Brown University, Rhode Island.
“What we’re seeing may be a remnant of an ancient climate cycle on modern Mars where there was precipitation and possibly snowfall on these volcanoes in the past.”
The research team suggests that the way air circulates over these mountains creates a “unique” microclimate that allows thin patches of frost to form in very thin layers about the width of a human hair.
He believes that modeling how the ice forms will allow scientists to unlock more of Mars’ remaining mysteries, including understanding where water exists and how it moves, as well as understanding the planet’s complex atmospheric dynamics, which is essential for future exploration and searches for possible signs of life. .
To this end, Dr. Valantinas plans to look at ancient hydrothermal environments that may have supported microbial life on Mars.
Mole Martians
These holes discovered by the HiRISE camera are thought to be a function of a landslide into the lava tube below.
Underground lava tubes are strange places on Earth, but on Mars it’s believed they could offer a ready-made shelter from radiation that astronauts could use on future missions during solar storms.
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“There’s more than one. [pits] on Mars that we’ve seen,” said Brandon Johnson, a geophysicist at Purdue University Business Insider. “But they’re really interesting because they’re places where astronauts could go and be safe from radiation.”
Because of this shelter, they can also be a promising place to look for signs of microbial life. Without any significant or complete magnetosphere, the barrier that protects life on Earth from solar radiation, the bosom of the Martian interior would be the only available source of natural protection.
In addition, while the surface of Mars can plunge into temperatures from minus 80 to minus 160 degrees Fahrenheit, life forms living underground can avoid freezing. On Earth, the subterranean environment is pretty much always 63°F, no matter where you go in the world.
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On Mars, Johnson explains, it’s unknown what the temperature would be underground, but it’s not hard to imagine something similar.
Proposals are being made to send a specialized rover to Mars to launch into these skylights to study the environment there. While the rovers have been limited in scope to wheeled vehicles up to this point, serpentine rovers that “spin” on the ground rather than roll are being tested; allowing them to travel up and down walls, over the roughest terrain and even on ice. They’re designed primarily for a hypothetical expedition to Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, but there’s no reason the snake probes couldn’t be used to explore lava tubes on Mars—that would probably be an easier place anyway. WaL
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