Researchers at Tucson University who reviewed all the images and measurements ever sent from the Las Vegas crater on Mars determine that a series of layers in the sediments in the basin are consistent with the presence in the distant past of huge standing bodies of water.
The main finding of the mapping is sediment layers in the Hellas Planitia crater, which is more than 8 km deep and about 2,000 km in diameter, located in the southern hemisphere of Mars. These series of sedimentary layers are consistent with the presence of large standing bodies of water that once existed in the Las Vegas Basin, says Dr. Leslie Blimster, research scientist at the University of Arizona's Institute of Planetary Sciences.
Blimster says that rocks above the surface of the ground, around the eastern edge of the Las crater, are actually a series of sediment deposits, which originate from soil erosion and the transport of materials from the edge of the plateau area into the basin of the wide body of standing water that existed in the crater basin. The Las Basin is, as far as is known, the largest crater on Mars.
The Las crater has been studied over the years
In the early 9s, the Mariner 9 spacecraft transmitted low-resolution images from Mars. These indicated what was happening geologically in the Las Basin. It was evident that there were features there that looked like volcanic ridges. The pattern of the mountains included ridges, trenches and hints of circular craters - when the topography in the area seemed to be generally low. After Mariner 1 Viking 2 and XNUMX were sent. Viking spacecraft also returned images - this time much better than Mariner's. So it was possible to improve the knowledge about the topography of Mars.
After the Viking operations, researchers carried out geological mapping of Mars to study the craters in the Las region. Over the years and spacecraft launched, better data could be obtained and the technology improved. Over time, data began to arrive from new Mars missions: Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) launched in 1996 and its camera (Mars Orbiter Camera MOC) operated until 2007. Another device on MGS was the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter - a probe with altimetry (height) sensors from a laser installed on it and observe topographical data of the land. The probe operated until 2001 and its role was to collect data on the ground level and its characteristics. This is how the spacecraft sent topographical data and very high resolution photographs to Earth.
In 2001, a space vehicle named Odyssey Mars was launched after Arthur C. Clark's famous book "Odyssey 2001". A camera was installed on top of this space vehicle that photographed Mars at wavelengths in the visible and infrared region to determine the thermal properties of the Martian soil and is called the Thermal Emission Imaging System.
On June 2, 2003, the European Space Agency sent Mars Express from Kazakhstan, also carrying a high-resolution camera, and in 2005, NASA launched Mars Reconnaissance from Cape Canaveral in search of water and signs of life on the surface of Mars. It also produced very high-resolution photographs.
Signs of water in the Las Basin
Researchers who relied on the knowledge accumulated from the various Mars missions, mapped the Las craters as part of a geological project in 1987 at a scale of 1:15,000,000 based on the images from the Viking spacecraft. In the mid-nineties and early 1s, additional geological mapping of the crater was carried out on a scale of 5,000,000:XNUMX. The mapping explored the general geological area in the Las crater and also explored the material that fills the crater. The conclusion was that the southern area of the crater is filled with material that is mostly lava flows more than one kilometer thick, which erupted from the Mela Plenum volcano.
After the 2005 mission, the researchers realized that the crater inside the Las was filled with material that might be related to volcanic activity from the northwestern edge of the basin. The material in the crater may also be related to the presence of water and ice water. In Viking images, you see winding ridges, mountains and trenches within the basin. Higher resolution images reveal layers of cliffs between the hills. In 2007 researchers proposed, based on recent images taken by the MGS's MOC camera that imaged the deepest parts of the western Laas Basin below 6900 meters, that they showed signs that the Laas Basin contained ice-covered lakes.
Therefore, the researchers estimate that the Las itself was a site of extensive lake and glacial activity. Analysis of mineralogical information from the instrument on board Mars Express and spectrometric analysis from the instrument on board Mars Reconnaissance was performed - and phyllosilicate (Si2O5)-2 hydrates were revealed in the rock area. This reinforced the feeling that there was aquatic activity in the Las Basin area. That is why in previous studies and previous mappings they already suggested extensive canals and lakes in the Las Basin.
The new mapping of the Tucson Planetary Institute
The new mapping of the Planetary Institute strengthens the previous research done in the field and the geological interpretations they gave and confirms the existence of the lakes in the Las Basin. The new mapping changed the age estimation in the Las Basin. While previous researchers estimated the age of the basin to be younger, the researchers from the Planetary Science Institute estimated that the time when the presumed lakes in the Las crater existed was about 3.5 or 4.5 billion years ago.
The mapping was carried out with the help of a database that combines photographs and parts of photographs and scans that examined the geological materials and processes that shaped the area. These were obtained from data from the following spacecraft: Viking, Mars Odyssey and MGS.
The new map published at a scale of 1:1,000,000 can be found on this site.
The mapping helps to assess landforms and sediments that result from changes in the route of the ridges. The researchers discovered that the eastern part of the Hales Crater, where the sediments were found at the bottom, is unique in nature, as it represents a combination of sediment sources and basins.
More than half of the surface of Mars is covered in volcanic deposits, including lava flows and materials that encourage volcanic activity. It was found that the Circum-Hellas ridges make up a significant percentage of the southern hemisphere of Mars and are the site of volcanic activity and sedimentary activity over all the geological periods of Mars. The researchers believe that the crater Hellas Planitia preserves the materials removed from these ridges. Therefore, according to them, this crater holds the key to the disclosure of additional secrets that Mars treasures.
For an announcement on the Tucson University Institute for Planetary Studies website
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No.
The moon originates from the part that broke off from the Earth following the collision of the ancient Earth with a planet the size of Mars - that is, if the moon teaches anything, it is about the ancient Earth.
Mars is a completely different planet
Yesterday I read a news that the scientists claim that the amount of water on the moon is much higher than what they thought so far.
Does this also mean something about the amount of water on Mars?
to Eyal.A
The explanation I know is that the water on Mars evaporated over a relatively short period of time
of several hundreds of millions of years by the solar wind.
Mars does not have a magnetic field similar to Earth.
A magnetic field acts as a "shield" against the solar wind which is a flow of charged particles
Extremely energetic, mainly hydrogen and helium nuclei emitted from the sun and accelerated by the field
The magnetism of the sun.
A planet without a magnetic field, under "direct bombardment" of the solar wind which is between
The rest may evaporate the surface water reserves on the planet.
The solar wind problem is one of the theoretical problems that require a solution in the design of the lander
man on mars
If there was water there for a period of several hundred million years, maybe there is
Still remains of organic matter.
What a shame they canceled the Constellation program...
Within a hundred years, there could be a lake there again following the process of terraforming...
Where, then, has all that water gone?