Water Images on Mars
ESA’s Mars Express and its High-Resolution Stereo Camera returned outstanding images of Echus Chasma, one of Mars’s largest water source regions on the Red Planet. Another area is its main valley, the Kasei Valles, which connects the Echus Chasma and the plain Chryse Planitia on the East with both valley branches exhibiting a depth of 2900 metres. Considered one of the largest outflow channel systems on Mars, the Kasei Valles is estimated to be formed by gigantic floods and possibly shaped by glacial activity at a later date.
The Echus Chasma plateau has smaller valley, called sapping canyons, which originate from the discharge of groundwater. Considering the fact that Mars offers us themost hospital climate in the solar system—after Earth, that is. Its outflow channels along with other features show us that liquid water has been on the Martian surface, with liquid water below its surface because of the thin atmosphere and low temperatures preventing liquid water from being on the top surface.
Both NASA rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have found mineralogical evidence that there is water on Mars at some point, in addition to the recent find of ice water on Mars by the Phoenix lander. Scientists are preparing, as we speak, for the world’s first direct look at what remains of the Martian water with today’s technology. Phoenix is as high-tech as we can get, determining the isotopic composition of the water, telling scientist exactly how the water had been locked into the Martian ground. Hunting for organic molecules in the ice and soil, as organics are believed to be key for life to evolve, the recent studies have focused on this area.
The three orbiters—the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express—are studying not only geological signs of water from a space vantage point but also dried channels and riverbeds. Technical instruments allow them to find minerals associated with water, which includes clay soil on the red planet. All of this information gathered together is helping the scientist focus on habitations that may house future Earthlings wishing to live on Mars, laying the foundations for “Sample Return Mission” in 2020.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 6:04 am and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
