NASA already had previous evidence of the presence of water on Mars, but the current evidence - an image of rocks containing flow deposits - is the first of its kind.
The rover Curiosity, exploring Gale Crater on Mars, found evidence of the existence of a stream that flowed vigorously in the area where the vehicle travels. NASA already had previous evidence of the presence of water on Mars, but the current evidence - an image of rocks containing flow deposits - is the first of its kind.
"From the size of the gravel blocks that the rock carried, we can conclude that the water flowed at a speed of about a meter per second, ankle-deep and in some places even thigh-deep," says scientist William Dietrich from the University of California at Berkeley, a member of Curiosity's scientific team. "Many articles have been written about the channels on Mars, including many hypotheses about the flow inside them. This is the first time we've actually seen gravel channels where water moved on Mars. This is the transition from hypotheses and speculations about the size of the materials in the flow channels to direct observation of them."
Pictured: NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered evidence of a stream channel that once flowed on Mars at several sites, including the rock outcrop depicted in this image, which scientists named 'Hoota' after Lake Hoota in Canada's Northwest Territories. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The channel is between the northern part of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain located in the center of the crater and formed as a result of the same asteroid impact. Previous images of the area from orbit around Mars enabled another interpretation of the gravel finds. The images show an alluvial fan of material that was swept down the crater rim, which is incised in many channels, which is above the new find.
The rounded shape of some of the rocks in the area indicate a transfer from a long distance from areas above the rim of the crater, where a channel known as the Peace Vallis feeds the alluvial fan. The large distribution of the channels in the fan between the rim of the crater and the gravel area raises the hypothesis that the flow continued or returned for a long time, and it is not just a one-time event or one that lasted only a few years.
The discovery came after an investigation of the two phenomena known as "Hotah" and "Link" using the remote shooting capability of the arm camera during the first 40 days after landing. These observations followed previous hints from a similar phenomenon revealed by the exhaust gases of the MSL spacecraft to which Curiosity was attached during landing.
"Hota looks like someone hammered a thick piece of pavement, but it's actually a block that was pushed aside from an ancient stream," says MSL scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The gravel in the combination in both shows varies in size from the size of grains of sand to golf balls. Some of them have different angular shapes but many are rounded.
"The configuration tells us they were driven and the size tells us they couldn't have been moved by the wind. They had to go through a stream of water," says Rebecca Williams of the Institute of Planetary Sciences in Tucson, Arizona, also a member of Curiosity's scientific team.
The science team used Curiosity to study the basic composition of the materials that hold the gravel complex together, revealing more characteristics of the dry environment that formed the sediment. The stones in the complex provide an example of stones from areas above the rim of the crater, so the team also examined some of them to learn about the broader geology of the area.
The slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the vehicle's primary destination. Clay and sulfide minerals were discovered from orbit and could preserve carbon-based chemicals that are the potential building blocks of life.
"Long currents can serve as a living environment" says Grotzinger. "This is not our first choice as an environment for organic matter preservation, although we still go to Mount Sharp, but it is an insurance policy that we have found our first potentially life-supporting environment."
For information on the NASA website
Another curiosity on the science website: the crescent moon on Mars
12 תגובות
A.S., an article about the landing of Mars appeared on the website today. I guess you saw. Let's move the conversation there next time.
I don't have a magic solution to the radiation issue. I said for a start, the settlement will probably start in closed buildings.
So we will live in closed buildings. Most of us live like this most of the time. I agree that we also go out. It would be wonderful if there was also a magnetic field for Mars in addition to the possible atmosphere - there is none. But there is evidence to suggest that Mars was once similar to Earth. At least in the existence of days and atmosphere.
There is no other planet that comes into consideration as an intermediate destination, except Mars. Our civilization is not able to reach further in the meantime. But she can if she devotes her resources to the matter. Culturally and politically she is young or limited. About half the globe strives to return us to the Middle Ages, and the other half is busy surviving day to day.
Humanity needs a landmark to cross the psychological barrier of colonization in space.
Mars is the point in my opinion. Crossing the psychological barrier may motivate forces, that it is possible and even economically worthwhile to develop real space technology. They will find a solution to the problem of the absence of the magnetic field. theres no option
Add iron to the core of Mars, I don't know what is possible.
After Mars they will start thinking boldly about a speed of movement close to the speed of light. Ideas were raised about sailing vehicles, nuclear engines and gravity propulsion or propulsion that creates a wormhole by local distortion of space. There was even a movie with Jodie Foster. There is even a non-secret plane with secret specifications, American (X something), which when looking for information on it says gravity motion. I have no idea what they are talking about - maybe just something else.
Which to most of us seems ludicrous. Let's remember that many things that science does today, would have been considered magic in the past.
Yaron,
NASA cosmic ray estimates
http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_cr.html
Cosmic radiation is hundreds of times higher on Mars than on Earth
You can also read in the Solar radiation section
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars
The conclusion is that it is not possible to colonize Mars
I'm glad they didn't kill me for fantasizing.
Regarding magnetic field and its importance you are right. The magnetic field protects the Earth like a radiation shield.
But Mars is further away from the Sun which is a major source of radiation and the radiation decreases as the square of the distance.
It is true that massive super novae, without a magnetic field will do the same, and the frequency of their appearance is sparse. as far as
For natural life development, it prevents/reduces the probability of life forming. I tend to think we can
To live on Mars, as artificially seeded life. is satisfied with a research settlement first.
As a first option, for a "primitive" civilization like ours, Mars comes into consideration.
"primitive":
+ Movement with fuel. rocket propulsion. Already today I would consider nuclear propulsion despite the opposition of the greens.
A nuclear engine that comes into action only in space, and destroys itself otherwise. I would think about engines for a speed that is close
For a particle the speed of light.
+ Without the ability to self-repair, self-sustain - dependent on the planet of the house.
+ Politically: divided, primitive.
+ Without the ability to engineer at a space level: transporting meteorites to crush on Mars, producing energy from extra-atmospheric radiation, driving at speeds for which space distance is shortened by a factor of 10.
+ Without knowledge of how to transport astronauts for months and years in a sardine box, and overcome problems such as calcium escape, psychology and more.
In all this apparent pessimism I am optimistic that humanity will find new solutions. This will accelerate the development of new solutions.
https://www.hayadan.org.il/mars-solar-wind-270904/
Yaron,
There is just one small problem with the Mars landing!
Mars does not have a significant magnetic field to protect from wind and solar storms.
With let's say Mars is conquered every living thing that is on the surface of the planet without protection will die within
short time.
conclusion:
It is not possible to colonize Mars
The future settlement of Mars can be compared to the white settlement in America in the years 1492-1900. The difficulties are of the same order of magnitude as they were then. Primitive transport technology that makes it possible to reach the destination only after an 8-month journey, and only a handful of settlers without food and water in a hostile environment. A conflicted old world.
The scales of distance and time have changed - jumped. Our most advanced technology looks like the technology
The primitiveness of the time for the challenges of the time. The Queen of Spain at the time, who barely agrees to finance the research, compared to today's US President who closes NASA projects.
In a hopeless world Curiosity gives us hope for a better future, from the present which is not so good.
The world's focus on the short-term present and the free enterprise that enters this vacuum. Spaceships versus sailing ships. The famine that befell the Mayflower people.
The need to produce food and means of subsistence locally, independent of the sending country.
The destruction of the Viking settlement in 1000 by the locals in America. Maybe even a war for independence
Going forward. History repeats itself on a different time-space scale.
It is possible that instead of the fabric sails, particle-storing sails will come into use, when the particles will be sent back
and will enable propulsion close to the speed of light. In the very distant future, perhaps using gravity to propel through space.
It is certain that there are more advanced technologies to be discovered that will make it possible to deal with the difficulties of colonization in space. We only know 5 forces and harnessed them to our services.
We must get to know additional forces (I think there are) and new renewable technologies, both in energy production, but also in self-repair for space vehicles, and in food materials. To integrate artificial intelligence in tasks together with humans.
Not everything is rosy - we all know that.
Water is very important to us for at least three reasons that I can think of:
1. In settlement, it is easier to find water than to bring it in a space bus in an amount that will last for years, or
produce them from oxygen and hydrogen. Actually bringing the water is almost impossible.
2. Sowing crops - essential for the food needs of a research colony. Again - against bringing a food container in space sounds difficult.
3. Landing - again to sow algae which, in the process of hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, will create an atmosphere, a protective blanket for Mars, to enable settlement that is not under an airtight artificial dome. Water is needed. Crushing a meteorite of ice and mud sounds harder.
And for the skeptics - who question the need to start it now. A look at today's paper shows that Earth is alone
It will not necessarily survive the increase in population density, the lack of resources, forces that pull back to the Second Middle Ages (perhaps there were already two - Atlantis), and a Western civilization whose leader does not want to interfere in what is going on in the world, and I am not referring specifically to Irao, but to the conflict between Japan and China for example and more. Even a process of hundreds of years, has to start at any time. A chaotic world.
In settlement: you start in the researcher colony, and move to the city in sealed containers and move to the land. In my opinion, humanity must settle in other stars in order to survive. I am aware of the scoffers that we sow our troubles on other planets. There are many universes and an infinite number of stars in the universe. Nothing will happen if we sit another one. In all our bad there is also good.
It is certainly interesting to study the discoveries, but after reading and following what is published, one gets the impression that this is an advertising campaign, there is no consistency, there is a lot of mystery, such as there is ice, there is no water, a liquid that made a hole in the rock was decided to be water, and more. more than know.
Eli needs to emphasize and separate what is known and what is valued
Wouldn't billions of years of spirits give the same result?
The article should be proofread:
In the title and the second sentence:
Previous and previous evidence, and the container appears twice.
In the 3rd paragraph from the end above the rim of the crater and not a crater.
Instead of finding water, let them make water.
How do you make water?
When will they find water and not just leftovers? After all, they said there was water at the poles, why didn't they land the vehicle there to check?