[ad_1]
Scientists think they have discovered a new cache of ice water on Mars – and not any ice, but a stratified mixture of ice and sand representing the last traces of polar caps lost long ago.
This is what emerges from a new study based on data collected by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which bypasses the red planet since 2006 and marked his 60,000th journey around Mars. On board the spacecraft is a radar instrument capable of seeing about 2.5 km below the surface of the planet – and in these data, scientists see a lot of ice.
"We did not expect to find so much ice water here," wrote lead author Stefano Nerozzi, a PhD student in geology at the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Texas, said in a statement published by the American Geophysical Union, which published the new research. "This makes it probably the third largest reservoir of water on Mars after the polar ice caps."
Related: The South Pole of Mars Could Hide a Large Underground Lake
This is a lot of water. And the amount of water ice in the area is confirmed by a second study done by a team of overlapping scientists. This research used Mars-based gravitational data collected by NASA during several of its missions on the Red Planet. But with this technique too, the region is teeming with water ice – enough so that if you melt it and spread it evenly across the planet, it would submerge Mars by about 1.5 meters.
What is even more intriguing is not pure ice: the radar instrument has detected several different ice surfaces in the region in a pattern suggesting the alternation of ice and sand bands.
If this finding holds, these layers could represent the remains of ice caps this adorned the poles of Mars hundreds of millions of years ago. If this is also the case, the layers could testify to how the Martian climate has warmed and cooled over the eternities in response to tiny changes in the orbit and tilt of the planet.
An image of the Mars reconnaissance orbiter shows light layers of water ice mixed with darker layers of sand, all dotted with bright white frost plates.
(Image: © NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)
The new research also helps scientists determine where the water resources are on Mars – and it is essential to inform the search for life, because if there is life or its traces, they are very probably near the water.
"Understanding the amount of water available in the world compared to what is trapped in the poles is important if you want to have liquid water on Mars," Nerozzi said. "You can have all the right conditions for life, but if most of the water is stuck at the poles, then it becomes difficult to have adequate amounts of liquid water near the water. equator. "
The instrument that spotted the layers is not the only radar instrument on the Marking Orbiter March. A second aircraft on board also took a look under the surface of the red planet. In July, a team of scientists published findings suggesting a very salty water lake buried under a mile (1.6 km) of ice at the south pole of Mars.
The research suggesting stratified deposits and research support the estimated volume of ice is featured in two articles published today (May 22) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Email Meghan Bartels to [email protected] or follow her @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link